Within the turning gears of fate
by Not Just a Nerd
Summary: A series of non-connected one-shots featuring Justin and Alex mainly as kids and later as adults. Cute, fluffy, innocent, happy stories. No villains, no problems, no angst. ALL JALEX. Summary for each chapter is included within the chapter.
1. Oneshot 1

**Disclaimer: nope, don't own. **

**Summary: He reads sleeping beauty to his siblings. **

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**Justin- 8 years, Alex- 6 years, Max- 4 years.**

Their parents are gone to their grandparent's house- they didn't tell him why but he suspects that that his grand mom may be sick. It scares him, but he's the older one, he has to stay strong for his siblings. It scares him even more to think that they left Uncle Kelbo in charge. All day long, he and Alex have been playing and pulling pranks, and in the process they destroyed so many things in the house, including his mother's lamp. He wonders how they are going to explain everything to their parents when they get back.

He sighs softly and sits down in his room, on his side of the bed. That's when Alex comes running in, chased by Max, who has a book in his hand. When they both jump up on the bed and settle down, he can see that the title of the book reads "sleeping beauty".

"Justin, help me!" Alex pleads, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. "Max is asking me to read this thing aloud. I hate reading!" she sticks out her tongue childishly, at him, at Max, and at the book.

Max's lower lip quivers, like it does when he is about to cry. And Justin panics. He quickly picks up the book. "That's okay. I'll read it. You can all listen."

Max smiles happily, settling down on the other side of Justin, away from Alex. Alex frowns, shifting closer to Justin, putting her arms around him, and claiming what is hers. Max should know that she is not going to share Justin with him.

He begins reading. She listens, snuggling closer to him with every passing minute. Her eyes get droopy, and at some point she notices that Max has already fallen asleep. She frowns to see that Max is sleeping in their room, but their parents are not home and he can't sleep alone, so okay. She doesn't want Justin to stop reading though, she likes listening to his voice, its kind of nice and soothing and makes her feel safe, and she wants to hear how this story ends. It's been such a long time since her mother read this to her, she doesn't even remember.

When the story ends, Justin is tired, and she is almost asleep, rubbing her eyes to forcefully keep herself awake.

"Go to sleep", he whispers softly, gently rubbing her back.

"But what if I keep sleeping like sleeping beauty?" she asks fearfully, looking up at him with big brown sleepy eyes. He doesn't think he'll ever see something so innocent in his life. "What if I don't wake up again?"

He smiles reassuringly, pulling her flat against him. "Don't worry; I'll wake you up with a kiss then."

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Justin- 25 years, Alex- 23 years**

She is kind of excited for her birthday, but not as excited as she used to be before, now that she finally realizes that with each birthday she is only getting old. She groans, shoves her face deeper into her pillow, settles down on her stomach, and kicks whoever the hell is trying to shake her awake. If someone wants to wish her on the birthday, what can be a better present than letting her sleep all day?

She hears Justin groan in pain, and oh, she just found a better present. "Alex!" he hisses, "Wake up! Come on, sleeping beauty!"

She smiles fondly at the memory that surfaces in her mind, but has the decency to turn around and roll her eyes. "You forgot how to wake sleeping beauty up?"

He frowns, trying to understand what she's saying. He remembers how to wake her up, he has to... And "oh!", the light-bulb in his head flashes. Finally! And his lips are on hers.

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A/N: I got 7 ideas in my head and they just won't leave me alone! (I blame tilante's Valentines for this :P) I had to write 7 one-shots! So, here it is, baby-jalex. Hope you liked it, please review :)and yes, I know I picked a weird title that makes no sense. wow I gotta tell sandalaris she's not alone anymore :P  
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	2. Oneshot 2

**Summary: Justin first gets his powers. And they start questioning their parents. **

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**Justin- 8 years, Alex- 6 years**

When she suddenly sees a flash of light shoot from Justin's finger-tip and travel in her direction, she is almost scared. She stands still in shock with wide puzzled eyes. It misses her by mere inches, but Justin is so scared by then that he's hugging her to death. "I'm so sorry, Alex. I don't know what happened! I didn't mean to hurt you…. Did I hurt you? Are you okay?" He pulls back and inspects her thoroughly to make sure that she isn't bleeding or doesn't have bruises, and sighs in relief when he finds no signs of any injury. "Come on, we need to tell mom and dad what happened!"

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When their parents explain that he has magical powers, she believes him. She has been reading all those stories about fairies and witches after all. She believes in magic- she always has. She looks at him with awe in her eyes, her respect for him increasing. Now he is like all those princes she read about in the fairy-tales. She knows he is going to slay all the dragons and climb the evil witch's fortresses to save her. She is just so proud of him, she doesn't have words!

It's only when their parents say that magic runs in the family does she frown. "Then why don't I have powers like him?" she asks. She doesn't ask why Max doesn't have powers, because, well, Max and magic will be sure disaster.

"Honey, you will have powers", their father reassures. "When you reach his age, they'll come in."

She shakes her head and stomps her feet stubbornly. She wants to do magic with Justin. Now. "But I want powers now!" she pouts, her lip quivering.

"If magic runs in the family", Justin begins, and she is sort of angry that he is interrupting her, but her new-found admiration for him makes her stop. If she annoys Justin, maybe he won't take her with him for his flights to the sky! "Then why don't you and mom have powers, dad?" he finishes, looking at his parents with questions in his eyes.

Alex looks at them curiously too. "Yeah, why don't you have powers?"

His father sighs, motioning for them to sit down. They obey, sitting down beside each other quietly.

"Your mother is a mortal", their father explains, "She didn't have magic. I had magic. So I gave up my magic to marry her."

Alex frowns, because giving up magic does not make _any _sense at all. "Why would you give up your magic?"

"Because wizards and non-wizards can't be together." Their father explains, giving their mother a soft smile. His eyes shine with love. "And I wanted to be with your mother, more than anything else."

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When it's night and their mother has tucked them in the bed, trying to put them to sleep, he can clearly see that she's awake, and thinking. Her chocolate eyes are open, gleaming, and fixed on the ceiling. He can't sleep either, there's too much on his mind. He is still shocked to find out that he is... like a super-hero, he is upset that he will have to deal with danger, even though he absolutely wants nothing more than to ask his Captain Jim Bob Sherwood to protect him and Alex, and he is scared that when they are asleep, his powers may get out of his hand again and he may hurt her.

"Alex?" he asks softly, "Are you still upset that you don't have powers yet?"

"No, I'm scared, Justin", she confesses, shifting her gaze to him, her lower lip puckering up in a pout. "What if I never get powers? Does that mean you and I can't be together?" her voice cracks, and her eyes water.

He pulls her close and hugs her tightly. "Don't worry, you will get your powers."

She believes him like she always does, but she is still scared. "What if I don't? Like mom?" she asks again. "Are you gonna leave me?"

He smiles. "No, of course not! Then I'll give up my powers for you... Like dad."

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**Justin- 22 years, Alex- 20 years **

It feels kind of strange to not have magic anymore, to not feel that surge of power thrumming through her veins. She can't even sleep, it feels so weird. But whatever, the Wizard Competition just happened today, so maybe she'll get better soon.

"Hey" he starts uneasily, rolling over in the bed and facing her. "I'm sorry."

Her eyebrows wrinkle in confusion. "For what, dork? What are you sorry for? You're the one who gave up your powers to Max. I'd _never_ understand why you did that."

He frowns at her. "Because I promised you. I promised you that if you don't have powers, then I will give up mine too."

She scoffs. "When? In your dreams?"

He sits up. "You don't remember!" he says incredulously, like it's the strangest thing that happened to them, and she groans, because gosh, Justin doesn't need to be so dramatic all the time, does he? The strangest thing that happened to them was... well, them. "I promised you this when we were kids!"

And this time she is the one who sits up, because, seriously, he kept a promise that he made when they were stupid little kids, a promise she doesn't even remember? She must have been really young then. "You would do anything for me, won't you?" she asks, gently rubbing his arm. It must have been really hard for him to give it all up after he won it, but he doesn't look broken at all, not when he's looking into her eyes and smiling.

He doesn't answer. He knows this is rhetorical.

She bites on her bottom lip, trying to contain her emotions. "Why, Justin? Just because of a silly little promise?"

"No, not just that", he shakes his head. "I didn't want to be a wizard anymore if you weren't. Like I said before, you make me a better wizard... Without you, it's all meaningless. I love you."

She feels so happy, so lucky, so emotional, it's like she has melted. But she manages to keep up her Alex-barrier, and scoffs again. "Pssh! What a dork!" She places a soft kiss on his lips, smiling gratefully at him, her eyes shining with admiration for him, like it did when she was six, he was eight and he first got his powers. "I love you too, Justin."

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**A/N: that's the second one. Hope you liked it. please review :)**


	3. Oneshot 3

**Summary: She convinces Max that Justin is their butler

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**Justin- 10 years, Alex- 8 years, Max- 6 years**

It's really annoying when Max stops following her lead and starts following Justin instead, and not just because she lost the only follower she had, but also because he is taking up a part of Justin's attention now. Till that day, she used to be the only one that he ever paid any attention to, and now, he is helping Max with the alphabets and the numbers, he is playing with cars and action figures with him. It's really annoying. Just because she is the only girl between two boys doesn't mean she has to be left out! They used to have so much more fun when he used to play house with her!

Justin ruffles Max's hair. She crosses her arms over her chest. Justin smiles at Max. She is fuming. Justin is supposed to be _only_ hers, he is supposed to care only about her, and _no one else!  
_

Justin laughs at some stupid joke Max says. And she is so jealous right now, she knows she _has to _do something to make this stop and claim back _her_ Justin. She doesn't even like sharing her chocolate with Max, why would she ever want to share her _Justin? _

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One of their father's rich friends invite them over for dinner, and they are all left wide-eyed at how big the place is, how many artifacts are there, how many furniture, the gold and silver and diamonds, fancy dresses, etc, etc. It's like their eyes are trying to pop out of their sockets! She even hears Justin counting the rooms. What a dork!

It's annoying when he pays more attention to Max than to her. This is so unfair!

When they are seated at the grand dining table with fancy table clothes and china and delicious food what not, she finally takes notice of the butler of the house.

Her lips curve upward into a sly smile. Now she has an idea.

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When they are home after an extravagant dinner that she will never forget, she manages to pull Max to a side. He still has a dreamy smile on his lips and a confused look in his eyes. It should be easy to manipulate him. "Did you see that butler in their house?"

"Yes", Max nods enthusiastically. "I want a butler too!"

And wow, he just made this easier! She grins. "We already have a butler... _Justin_ is our butler."

Max gasps. "Really?"

Alex nods. "Yes…. And if you get close to a butler, you will become a butler when you grow up."

"Awesome!" Max jumps up in joy. "Will I get to wear an assistant's coat?"

Alex frowns in disapproval. "Now, now, now. Do you want to be taken _far far _away from mom and dad and made to serve other people?"

Max's eyes glaze over with fear, and now she's guilty that she frightened her little brother more than necessary, and scared that if their parents hear of this, they will be angry with her. Not to mention Justin, he will probably never talk to her again

No." Max finally says.

She manages to smile. "Then stay away from Justin. And don't tell him I told you this, okay? He may get mad and stop talking to you."

"Okay." Max nods.

Wow. This was just too easy. And it works perfectly. Justin is all hers again. O_nly hers. _

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**Justin- 32 years, Alex- 30 years**

Alex sits in front of the TV in the living room, glancing at the door, waiting impatiently for Justin to get back home. It's getting late and she's getting tired, and he's still being a dork and working hard!

"Mommy?" Suddenly their little daughter tugs at her sleeve. She is a bit surprised to see that she woke up after she made her fall asleep, but it's all Justin's fault, really. She picks her up and places her on her lap, brushing back her hair from her forehead in a fond motherly way. "You can't sleep without daddy reading you a story, can you?"

The little girl shakes her head, and looks up at her with curious eyes, "Mommy, is daddy really our butler?"

Alex grins. It's not like she's jealous. This was just too tempting. She just couldn't resist. And anyway, she's the mistress of the house, the all-powerful dictator- she _has _managed to make him _her _butler... Well almost.

(Because as far as she knows, butlers don't sleep with their mistresses).

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A/N: hope you liked it. Please review :) Thank you sooo much for the amazing response so far. I love you guys! :) And OMG I'm so happy right now- David Henrie got the lead in a CBS Comedy series! *Squeals so hard you can hear it from Arctic to Antarctic* XD  
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	4. Oneshot 4

**Summary: "Yeah, remember the last time you got even with me? I got the bigger bed room and you?" he looks down, "Got a free trip to the mall." She grins, "Exactly, some things never change!"

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**Justin- 7 years, Alex- 5 years**

By now, he fully understands just how mischievous his sister is. She tears up the pages of his books on purpose, steals his pencils and crayons, teases him, likes to poke his sides, tickle his nose with a feather while he's sleeping. He knows she will be _a lot of_ trouble in the future.

When he wakes up one day with his comb glued to his hair, he is beyond mad. He needs to get to school soon, and now he'll be late! Finally, he has reached his limit. He is sick and tired of her pranks. He goes to his mom and shows what happened.

And it's decided that the root of the problem is that they share the same room. So she is shifted.

She gets the bigger bedroom.

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It's lonely. It's scary. Even with the night light on, he can't sleep. It's like something is missing from his other side, like his room is empty, incomplete. He knows he made the biggest mistake in his life by getting even with her. He's been with her ever since Max was born. It's been three years now. He doesn't even remember what it was like to sleep with his parents or sleep alone. Everything in his room has Alex written all over it. His pillows still smell like her. His bed-sheets still feel like her. Wherever he looks, he sees her. He keeps staring at the empty space where she used to sleep, as if expecting to see her there.

He needs her with him. But now, it's too late, he can't fix it… He falls asleep sobbing.

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**Justin- 28 years, Alex- 26 years**

"This house is nice", she comments, examining the third house that they were seeing that day, in Justin's paranoid endeavor to find the cheapest possible house. The other houses were sure disasters- she is even edging closer to spending some of her own money on their house. She can't live in a tiny stinky prison. Well, this one had space at least. And it smells nice-ish. Nothing she can't fix. There are two bed-rooms, perfect for show. "I'll take the bigger bed-room then", she says playfully.

He frowns in confusion, wondering what this is about, but then "Oh!", and he realizes that she is just playing with him, bringing back the memory that he confessed still haunts him.

"And I'll take the couch then", he plays along.

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Surprisingly, they both agree to make the smaller bed-room their bed-room. Maybe it's the thought of being as close to each other as possible? Either way, he finds his things occupying as much less space as possible, and her things strewn randomly everywhere. He should have known this would happen, and maybe he did. He just doesn't care. Not as long as she is with him. He accepted all this and many more things the day he started dating her.

The bigger bed-room ends up being their brother's room when he'd visit them. Lucky Max!

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He smiles, snuggling closer to Alex, like he used to, when they were little kids and he didn't get even with her. His pillows smell like her again, his sheets feel like her, and when he turns around in his sleep, she's right next to him, being the perfect cover hog and forcing him to sleep in cold.

He smiles. He fixed everything.

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A/N: Some dialogs from the show just get stuck in my head. LOL Review :P thanks for all the reviews :)  
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	5. Oneshot 5

**Summary: He always has her back.

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**Justin- 7 years, Alex- 5 years**

She remembers that day in the playground very well. They had just had a fight at home about something (she doesn't remember that anymore. They have had so many fights about so many things, it's really hard to remember the details). He was mad at her, she was mad at him, and so they were not talking. They had learned this silent treatment from their parents, they had observed how their parents didn't talk to each other after a big fight. And now it had become their favorite thing in the world- even though it hurt _a lot_ to restrain from talking to one another.

She was in the swings, swinging away with forced happiness, dangling her feet for the show. Something was bugging her, because he still wasn't talking to her, but she ignored it. She was not going to be the one to break the ice. Not in a million billion years.

She was lost in these thoughts when she suddenly heard his voice from behind. "Watch out Alex!"

Startled, she jumped out of the swing immediately, just in time to escape some boy puking all over it.

She looked up at him with a grateful smile. All her anger vanished when she saw that he saved her. He always had her back, even when he was mad at her.

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**Justin- 30 years, Alex- 28 years **

She is just so tired of waiting and pacing around the street aimlessly. He was supposed to be here five minutes ago, and he's usually not the one to be late. They had a big fight in the morning about the huge phone bill. (It really isn't her fault that Harper talks so much!) He stormed out of the house, she slammed the door hard behind him, still fuming. An hour later, she had started regretting it. Maybe she was a bit too harsh on him. Maybe she could have handled it _some other way_. Another hour later, she had texted him, telling him to meet her here. He didn't reply, and she was mad again. But finally, she came here. And now that he isn't anywhere in sight, she's starting to get a bit worried.

She stands still, frowning. She takes out her cell phone from the pocket of her jeans when she suddenly hears his voice, "WATCH OUT ALEX!"

She can only jump up just in time to avoid being puked over by some guy who looks wasted.

She blinks in shock for a while, shoots a "Ew! Gross!" at the disgusting sight, and searches for him. Her eyes meet his and her lips break into a grateful smile. She notices the bunch of fresh flowers in his hand, along with the sorry notes, just like their father used to give their mother after a fight and silence-period.

She smiles. He always had her back, even when he was mad at her.

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**A/N: yes, I know the idea is straight from "18 to life" (Isn't Micheal Seater just getting hotter and hotter by the day?) but come on, this is adorable! :D hope you liked it, please review! Thanks :)  
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	6. Oneshot 6

**Summary: she is just so sick of that dog

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**Justin- 7 years. Alex- 5 years**

Why does everything she does ultimately land her into trouble and more trouble?

It was her idea to get a dog. She was the one who was stubborn and kept pleading to her parents, she was the one who chose the dog. And now she is just so sick of that dog. Really, Willy is taking up all of Justin's attention these days. He's always playing with him; he's feeding him, walking him, teaching him how to read even though the dog is just tearing up his books. That dog has become the center of his attention.

And it is just so, so, so unfair! It's totally unfair, because, she came to his life first! She has been in his life longer! She loves her old Barbie doll more than her new teddy bear because her old Barbie came in her life first and has been there longer. So shouldn't Justin love her more too? She was the axis on which his life used to rotate, he was hers. And that stupid dog has taken it all away from her. So no fair!

She sulks, sulks, sulks. He cuddles the dog again and again and again. She sulks, sulks, sulks. He cooes at that thing that his dog does with his cold damp nose. She sulks, sulks, sulks. And finally she has made up her mind that she is going to get rid of the dog. And she does. She lets him out of the house. Of course she makes sure that the woman who catches him is kind-hearted. By the way she is cuddling the dog, Alex knows Willy will be fine with her.

The only problem? It makes her feel horrible to see Justin hard so bad, to see him so upset. Their parents tell him it's the pizza guy, he stops eating pizza, and now she is feeling really really really guilty. She even misses Willy! Willy was so cute with those puppy eyes and nose and... if she thinks so much she is going to end up crying again.

But whatever, he comes to her when he needs a shoulder to cry on, she goes to him when she needs someone to wipe her tears. He's hers again, and she will take care of him, he will take care of her, everything will be fine. Everything will be the way it's supposed to be.

_("That was you?" "Let it go, I was five!") _

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**Justin- 40 years, Alex- 38 years**

He is reminiscing, and they are going through some of their old albums, showing some of the old photos to their kids. He freezes when he comes across a picture of Dragon. He picks it up and turns to their children. "Kids, this is Dragon. He's a dragon charmed as a dog. We used to have him when we were teens. And then one day….."

She growls in frustration. "It was an accident! Let it go! I was fourteen!"

He gasps, staring at her incredulously. "That was _you?_"

She bites on her bottom lip. "Umm... no?"

"Alex!" He yells.

"It wasn't my fault!" she yells back. "That dog was taking up all your attention! I was jealous! But hey, whatever, now everything's the way it's supposed to be!"

And as they are focusing on each other ignoring the rest of the world, their younger daughter whispers to their older daughter. "Wow, she's possessive of him. I'm glad she never... wait a minute", she suddenly stands up with hands on her hips, staring at her mother. "You didn't lose us in the mall on purpose, did you?"

"I thought that was Max!" Justin yells incredulously. "_That was you too?" _

Alex groans in frustration. That really was Max! Why would she ever want to get rid of her own kids? "Nope, that wasn't me!"

He frowns. "You still lost my dragon."

She growls. "Let it go! I was fourteen!"

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**A/N: seriously, Dragon just vanishes after season 1 like Gigi does after season 2 :P hope you liked this, review :) And again, I can't thank you guys enough for all the LOVELY reviews! :)  
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	7. Oneshot 7

**Summary: "yeah, when was your first kiss Alex?" "It was with this guy at this place and it was very romantic. It was over Christmas." "We went to grandma's for Christmas."

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**Justin- 10 years, Alex- 8 years**

She never realized how boring it was staying at their grandma's house. Or maybe it was because of the "don't use magic!" rule. How can she not want to use something that she just acquired, huh? It becomes even more boring because their parents are talking to their grandma all the time, and Max is the center of attention with his words that make no sense. She would have bee jealous, if Justin wasn't constantly with her.

"Justin", she calls, running to him, and hugging him tightly. "What'cha doing?" she asks curiously.

He smiles. "Fixing the mistletoe. Wanna help?" he offers, and then regrets it immediately, knowing very well that her involvement in anything meant sure disaster.

Thankfully, she decides that sitting and watching him work is better. So while he stands on the chair and is tall enough to reach the ceiling, she yawns.

When the mistletoe is hung and she joins him, his eyes widen in panic.

"What's wrong, dork?" she asks non-chalantly.

"We are below the mistletoe", he gulps. He is just so nervous to even say this. "Dad said it meant that the two people need to kiss. But you're my sister and…"

She rolls her eyes. "What's the big deal?" she snaps, pressing a kiss to his lips oh-so-innocently.

And that's how she gets her first kiss. (It's his first kiss too, like he constantly reminds her every second of their lives together).

Whatever. She doesn't tell this to anyone. Not just because it's wrong. But also because Justin is a _horrible_ kisser, and she's embarrassed to let the world know that she settled for someone like him for her first kiss.

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**Justin- 38 years, Alex- 36 years**

Their kisses aren't so innocent anymore. Now they are full of love and lust and passion and hunger and need and urgency. Their kisses are more meaningful, more intimate.

"Mom, I need your help", Their daughter suddenly blurts, sitting down at the kitchen stool with her.

"Okaay..." she says uncertainly, because if this has a, anything to do with homework... let's just say not paying any attention to classes at High School is going to get back at her.

Their daughter sighs. "See, there's this boy I like..."

Justin jumps up in shock, making the kettle turn and fall on the plates, making the plates fall on the floor and shatter.

Alex hisses. That was their good china!

"What boy?" Justin demands. "Who do you like?"

Alex rolls her eyes. "Stay out of this and just clean the mess. I don't want you to ruin my kitchen!" She finishes with a glare that tells him that he must keep quiet if he values his life. He does.

She turns to her daughter again. "So...?"

Their daughter resumes. "Well, he wants to kiss me..."

Justin jumps up again, this time making the cups fall on the floor and shatter.

"Justin!" Alex growls, ready to punch him and knock the consciousness out of him. "I said stay out of this! That's my kitchen!"

Their daughter groans. "I just don't know if I should kiss him. I've never kissed... How do I know it's right? How was _your_ first kiss?"

Alex licks her lips nervously. "It was with this guy at this place and it was very romantic. It was over Christmas."

Justin gasps, jumping up in shock and knocking down the tea-pot this time. When she stands up to smack him hard and places her hands on her hips, he gulps. He points his finger at her accusingly and stutters weakly. "You _are _embarrassed to say it was me!"

"You think it's a good idea to accuse me when I'm already mad?" She growls, hitting him back.

"Ouch!" He yelps, jumping back immediately.

"See why I was embarrassed?" she asked, " You yelp like a girl."

"I do not!"

"Sure you do, little girl."

"Alex!"

"_Justin!" _

_"ALEX!" _

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**A/N: I lived with this idea since season 1, finally my brain is free XD please review, thanks :) **


	8. Oneshot 8

**Summary: They are strangely fascinated by the idea of running a sandwich shop of their own.**

**Warning: This one is kind of angst-y. **

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**Justin- 10 years, Alex- 8 years **

These days, they like to do their homework at the sub-shop. Well, Justin does his homework; she and Max basically watch the silly customers and laugh at them.

But these days, they are getting more and more fascinated by the idea of running a sandwich shop when they grow up. She thinks it's _the_ perfect idea- she wouldn't have to study; she wouldn't have to work so hard. She will just have to smile and take orders from people. And most days she could just pretend that she forgot to put the "open" sign on. Heck, if the place barely scrapes by like their parents' sub-shop, there will be so less work to do! The idea is just too perfect!

He thinks that running a sandwich shop will be awesome. He can set aliens and space as the theme for his shop, and maybe their newly formed alien league can have their meetings there! Of course he wants to be a doctor or a robot engineer, but he is going to be the family wizard too, so maybe a sandwich shop is a better option? His father did tell him once that this was the only reason he had the kids. So why not?

He looks at her, she looks at him. They both know they're thinking the same thing. They nod silently.

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**Justin- 30 years, Alex- 28 years **

After their parents found out about them and refused to accept their relationship even after their constant pleading, they decided to end all ties with their parents. They only left a note, but no address or contact information, and ran far away. That's when they realized that maybe setting up their own little sub-shop would be a good way to earn money. He had his job, she had hers, but the hours were such that they would harder get to _see _each other, and anyway, it didn't pay as much as they needed. His savings was limited, she still didn't understand the meaning of the word "savings", and their apartment cost them a lifetime of loan.

She realized that she really did need to work hard and make the sub-shop work. Even if it had a lame alien and space theme. It was their only way to get enough money to live happily ever after. It was actually a good thing that she was still strangely fascinated by the idea of running her own sandwich shop, scary and nerve-wrecking as it was.

But sometimes she would sit down in the kitchen when she was all alone and glance at their sub-shop, remembering the times they spent with their parents at their parents' sub-shop. She wondered if she would ever see them again...

* * *

**Justin- 32 years, Alex- 30 years **

"Alex, why did you draw smiley faces on the order?" he asks her curiously, handing her the sandwiches a customer had ordered.

She shrugs. "I was just trying to distract the customer and get him to buy the expensive drink."

He frowns in disapproval. "Alex, you don't trick the customers, it's wrong."

She places her hands on her hips, ready for the battle. "Really? Because as far as _I_ remember, dad said that-" She freezes midway when she realizes that she just mentioned their father. They had an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't mention their family.

He clears his throat, sensing the tension. "Uh, why don't you just take the order to the table? And no more tricks Alex, you're making me look back out there!"

She glares at him. "Why don't you let _me _decide how to get more money out of people, huh? Meanwhile, you can stay at the back and stuff meat."

"_Stuffing?" _He yells incredulously. "You call this stuffing? Making sandwiches is an _art _Alex, I'd like to see you try."

She scoffs, ready for the challenge. "Bring it on! _I majored in art,_ I can _totally_ do this."

He glares, she glares harder, and the growls begin. That's when their little argument is interrupted by a sound of someone calling their names behind her. By the sound of the voice and the way his eyes widen in shock, she thinks she can guess who this is. This can't be true, she thinks to herself, as she crosses her fingers and turns around.

And there, she is face to face with her parents after two years. And now they are going to have the drama in a full sub-shop filled with customers who would never come back again!

They are expecting the questions and accusations and yelling, but instead, all they get are tight, warm hugs. "We have been looking for you guys forever!" Their mother cries, breaking down into tears. "We couldn't even go to the cops 'cause we thought that would get you into trouble... Why didn't you guys leave an address?"

She blinks, biting on her lip. "Because we thought you didn't want us to be together...?"

"We don't", their father says quietly, "But we don't want to lose you either... I guess my little girl is old enough to decide what she wants."

She smiles, hugging him tightly. "Thanks daddy", and then she pulls back with a twinkle in her eyes. "So... since you are here, why don't you order our special meat-a-lica sandwich. It's only 30 dollars."

"Alex", Justin warns with a groan, because she just ruined the tender family reunion moment, "No more tricks."

And that is the only part about running a sub-shop that she never liked.

* * *

**A/N: just thought it was cute. Hope you liked it. please review :) I'm kind of excited about getting 100th review on this one, lol. **

**Off-topic, did you see the Demi-Selena twitpic? They are friends again, yay!  
**


	9. Oneshot 9

**Summary: he's claustrophobic. (Half adorable, half T-ish).

* * *

**

**Justin- 8 years, Alex- 6 years**

They are playing hide and seek. And this is their turn for hiding and Max's turn for finding them. They are pretty sure that Max will never find them no matter where they hide- he doesn't have the brains, but Alex insists that they hide together, so that if they do get caught somehow, both of them get caught together and lose together. So she drags him inside her closet and shuts the door.

He gasps in panic. "Alex! Let me out of here!"

She eyes him curiously. Even in the dark, she can see his eyes darting left and right, and it just kind of scares him. "Why?"

He takes in a deep breath, sub-consciously drifting closer to her and clutching her hand. "Because I'm claustrophobic."

She frowns. She still doesn't understand why Justin learns up those stupid big words from the stupid books. She can see how sweaty his hand is... Is that what he's talking about? "Clus-", she stutters, "Clustophobic?"

Her incorrect pronunciation, and the way she pouts is just so adorable, he doesn't even feel the urge to correct her, like he usually does. He just smiles, despite his uncomfortable restlessness. "It means I'm scared of confined places."

She shrugs, hugging him tightly. "Don't worry, you're with me. I'll protect you." She announces proudly.

He smiles wider at her innocent words. He's the knight in the shining armor, he's the one who's supposed to protect her from anything and everything, but if the roles are reversed for once, he surely wouldn't mind!

He closes his eyes and pretends that he's not in a closet, like he's in some other place. He feels Alex next to him, and he feels... safe. _Home. _

* * *

**Justin- 22 years, Alex- 20 years **

This is the last thing that he thought she'd suggest... Actually, scratch that, he did expect this from the beginning. He knows her too well.

"This is mom and dad's closet." He draws out slowly, glowering at her.

She rolls her eyes and yawns exaggeratedly. "Your point?"

He gulps, trying to sound as serious as possible. "I don't think I'll ever be able to look them in the eye again, Alex."

She snorts. "That's what you said when I suggested their bed."

He glares at her. "Alex, we are not-"

She groans, cuts him off, and drags him to the closet, shutting the door behind them. The look on the face reads the words in her mind- _I don't give a damn. _

He gasps as he feels her lips on his, and gasps harder again. Not the gasps she usually squeezes out of him, but the panicked, scared to death gasp.

She growls in exasperation. He is just wrecking their moment. She hits him on the head. "What now, dork?"

"Ouch!" He rubs his head, and breathes in sharply, his mind getting crumbled and everything getting mixed up. "Alex! Don't you know I'm claustrophobic?" He hisses.

She snickers. "You mean you think you'll suffocate here?"

He shrugs, and starts to sweat, and licks his dry lips nervously. "Sort of."

She snickers again. Hasn't she been trying to kill him her whole life? "Well if you _will _suffocate, then I don't see the point why you shouldn't just keep kissing me. You don't need to breathe then." She declares evilly, and captures his lips in hers again. And if he wrecks it again this time, she will personally make sure that he does suffocate.

He groans, kissing her back. "Why couldn't you be six year old forever?"

She grins wickedly. "You mean you wouldn't mind doing _this_ to six-year old me?" she teases, grinding against him.

He flushes. "Argh. Ugh! I- we- _Alex_!" He yells, kissing her back again. Maybe if they keep kissing she'll shut up?

Somewhere in the middle of this, his eyes close, and he is so lost in her feel and touch and texture and smell and taste and love, that he has forgotten where he is. He feels Alex with him, and he feels... safe. _Home. _

The way she made him feel never changed, within the turning gears of fate. _  
_

* * *

**A/N: as far as I remember, Justin said he's claustrophobic in the trash-can scene in "Alex in the middle". I may be wrong, but hope you liked this :) please review :) and thanks for all the lovely reviews. !00+ ALWAYS feels awesome :) And yay, I could finally incorporate the title into the fic! LOL, I know I'm crazy :D  
**


	10. Oneshot 10

**Summary: She's glad real babies don't actually talk

* * *

**

**Justin- 17 years, Alex- 15 years **

She's really glad that _real_ babies don't talk, because really, this Baby Cupid is just driving her crazy. It just keeps talking and talking and talking- and landing her into trouble and more trouble. She just hates it so much.

"Alex, honey", her mother shoots her a look. "You've got to take your marriage and family class more seriously! You saw what happened to me and your father! But still you're hardly bonding with this… _freakishly real doll_."

"I'm not a doll", Cupid says, and there, it just did it again. Opening its big mouth to get her into trouble. Now she doesn't mind getting into trouble by opening _her own big mouth, _but seriously, it's freaky to think a little baby can do that to her!

Theresa furrows her eyebrows when she hears the "doll" speak, but shakes her head and lets it go. She has her own problems with her marriage and husband now. Whatever Alex is up to, Justin will probably take care of that, as usual. "You need to take it to the park sometime."

Alex feels her mouth fall open as she shoots her mother the "are you kidding me?" look Justin has been giving her for her whole life. "Mom! This thing can't even walk! It can't play or catch! It has nothing to do in a park! Why should I take it to a park then?"

"Hey, I like parks!" Cupid interjects, and Alex really wants to groan. She should have gagged him when she had the chance. Maybe she should do it now?

But instead she continues defending herself. "Did _you guys_ take _me_ to the park when I was this age, huh? Tell me?" She wonders what age Cupid actually looks like, but whatever, her mother will probably know that.

"Actually, we did", her mother says proudly. "Did I tell you about that one time when your brother-"

"Oh my gosh!" Alex whines under her breath. Now she just got another person to keep speaking when she doesn't want to hear even a single word.

"Hey, you know what? I've got an idea!" Her mother suddenly exclaims joyfully, and she knows it can't be good. "Justin should go with you too. Maybe a nice little walk and fresh air would make you guys get along well. And maybe I can file for custody of both of you when I divorce your father!"

She thinks she should have felt a bit worried to see that the fight is still going on since _she-_ no, _her dad_ broke the lamp (she isn't taking the blame!), but really, at the mention of the idea of having to spend more than two minutes with Justin, all she can do is double the "Oh my gosh!"

* * *

"It's cute watching you handle him", Justin teases, nudging her with his elbow.

She shoots him a nasty glare. "When I'm done with _this thing_, you'd be the next. You better start counting your days and enjoying them while they last."

He rolls his eyes, ignoring her not-so-empty threats and just enjoying this moment of seeing Alex look so miserable while it lasts. He will never actually admit it, but it really _is_ kind of cute watching her handle a kid. Even though she acts annoyed, she does take good care of him. Except the diaper part. That's ended up becoming his job somehow.

"Aren't you two a bit too young to have a baby?" They suddenly hear an old lady sitting on a park bench ask.

And they would have tripled the "Oh my gosh!" if her mouth wasn't hanging open in shock and he wasn't choking on his own breath.

Cupid sighs. "Kids these days. Always sneaking around."

And really, she's _so _glad real babies don't talk. They'd never have to deal with _their_ kid embarrassing them in public like this!

* * *

**Justin- 27 years, Alex- 25 years **

"Why isn't he talking yet?" Alex snarls at him, like it's his fault that their son is "slow". She should have been worried that this is some kind of recessive genetic disease or something that Justin keeps babbling about, but really, she chooses to believe that it's inherited from Max somehow. Must have been taught in those biology classes she didn't pay any attention to. But Hey, Max is like his uncle Kelbo, so maybe that's how the family works?

"Relax", he rolls his eyes, "He's just three months. Three month old babies don't talk." He snorts. "That's why I liked you when you were three."

"Ha-ha-ha", she states dryly, returning her attention to their son. When he was born, she had been so freaked out about everything, she swore she was never having kids again. But when she saw him, everything changed. It was the best moment of her life... And since that day, she's just waiting so long for her son to call out a "mommy" (If he says "daddy" first, he'll be responsible for the consequences, the laundry and dishes and all that stuff waiting for him the day he turns 13.) and she's not the most patient person around. This is sort of making her restless.

Justin smiles, watching their son sleep, and eyeing his demon-sister curiously. "I thought you said you were glad babies didn't talk?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, but I was just 15 back then and Cupid wasn't really my baby….." she stares at her sleeping son, and traces the little fingers with her thumb. "Ugh! Just talk already damnit!"

Justin frowns. The baby is so going to pick up curses from her in no time!

She shrugs off with a non-chalant "oops" and snarls with a "he can't really hear me right now and he can't speak!" And for once, she really is glad that babies don't speak…

"Say mommy? Please?"

* * *

**A/N: The Cupid and baby idea was all Baku Babe's. Consider this a birthday present girl ;) **

**Hope you guys liked it. Please review, thanks for all the amazing reviews :) **


	11. Oneshot 11

**Summary: "Mommy, why doesn't my dolly have an underwear?"**

**Warning: STRONG T**

* * *

**Justin- 7 years, Alex- 5 years**

She knows she is going to design fancy clothes for people when she grows up. Right now, she just loves changing her dolly's clothes. But today, she frowns when she notices for the first time that her dolly is not wearing underwear like she does. She quickly runs up to her mother, looking at her with questioning eyes. "Mommy, why isn't my dolly wearing underwear?"

Her mother winces for a few seconds, but then laughs at her innocent question. "Because dollies don't wear underwear, honey."

She's not sure if her mother is telling the truth, or if the shop-keeping is "ripping them off", as her father says, whatever that means. So she checks Justin's dolls to be sure. And when she finds that they don't have underwear either, she's finally relieved.

So dollies really don't wear underwear!

* * *

**Justin- 18 years Alex- 16 years **

"For what?" he yells incredulously at her. "I'm out of four-hundred dollars!"

She laughs cheerfully, jumping up on her feet. "There you go! There's the fight I was looking for! Don't you feel better?"

He blushes when he notices that her nipples are trying to poke out of her dress. It's pretty clear that she isn't wearing a bra. Again. If she was on camera, this would be so easily visible… But then again, they could always say that's the crease of the dress.

His thought is broken off when she jumps in to hug him. He can't resist. He needs revenge. And he needs _her._ That doll dress isn't going him any good.

So he hugs her as tightly as possible. With background noises. He's glad they're not on a kid's show.

"Justin, you're hurting me", she moans.

"Hmmm…" He hums. And then he smacks her on her rear. That's when he realizes it and his eyes go wide.

"I'm sorry", he apologizes quickly, "I didn't realize you weren't wearing…" he trails off, blushing.

She grins evilly. "Hey, mommy was the one who said dolls don't wear-" he hisses to cut her off before she can say the word. She rolls her eyes, "-And that stupid Olive is the one who dressed me up. So don't blame me!"

He grins. Oh he isn't blaming anybody. Au contraire….

He pulls back, smiling. "I do feel better now. Thank you."

* * *

**A/N: Idea's stolen from TV tropes. Hope you liked it. Review :)  
**


	12. Oneshot 12

**Summary: "So you're Miss Higglebottom?" "Hello Justin!" (This one isn't cute, this is more of T-ish *grins*)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own wowp or Friends. Lyrics used: If we were a movie by Miley Cyrus.  
**

* * *

**Justin- 7 years, Alex- 5 years**

"_What_ are you watching?" Justin exclaims in his panicked tone, with a scandalized look on his face. He _did not _wish to catch his little sister watching this thing on TV.

"Keep it down, egghead!" she snaps, smacking him hard across his chest. Her eyes twinkle with innocent childish curiosity as she starts at the Tv screen. "It's called _Friends. _Mommy watches it."

He frowns in disapproval. "Alex, this is not for kids. I don't think we are allowed to watch this. You should turn off the TV."

She rolls her eyes. "Relax, Justin. Mommy will never find out." Unless he tells their mother. She is tempted to add that part, but she doesn't. Why give him ideas that can get her into trouble?

He protests more, she ignores it, he panics, she groans, he scolds, she pouts. In the end, he gives in to his curiosity and her request and ends up watching it with her.

She watches intently as she sees a blond girl crank-call someone, pretending to be from the University of Fake Accents. Her eyes light up instantly. Crank-calling and fake accents- okay, now they are her two most favorite things in the world, besides being lazy and annoying Justin.

* * *

**Justin 17 years, Alex- 15 years**

She groans in frustration when she realizes that she can't come up with any new and unique prank ideas. She turns on the TV, wondering if she can draw inspiration from something, but finally settles for _Friends_ reruns. Comedy is always a good medicine when she's grumpy.

Rachael crank-calls Ross, and she instantly has an idea. A fabulous fool-proof idea.

* * *

She peeps into his room and makes sure that he is there alone, studying (what a nerd!), and his wand is right beside him on his bed. She comes back to her room happily and curls up in her bed with her wand in hand, and dials up his wand.

"Yello!" he answers instantly.

She frowns, and fights back the urge to shout a "_doesn't one of your study-calls tell you not to answer the phone yello?"_ and instead opts for her best fake voice and best fake accent. "Hello, is this Justin Russo?"

"Yeah", he replies quickly. "Who am I speaking to please?"

She rolls her eyes at how cordial and formal he sounds. What an uptight loser! "I", she pauses, realizing that she forgot to think up a name! She wiggles on the bed with her bottom, trying to come up with a name, and that's how it hits her. "Miss Higglebottom."

He frowns. Higglebottom. That sounds suspiciously similar to… Wiggle bottom? He scolds himself mentally. What is he thinking! He clears his throat. "Sorry, but I don't recognize you…"

"You don't know me", she says, grinning when she realizes that he is buying it too well. "I read about your helping hand spell in the wizard memo. Great work."

"Thanks", he says in his trying and failing to be cool voice that he uses on the girls that he likes.

And she should be freaked out by the fact that he is trying to hit on her, but she isn't, because this is just so funny, and this will be so embarrassing for him. What a valuable black-mail material! "You must be a genius", she compliments.

He blushes, unsure what to say. "So… ummm… What do you do?"

She bites on her bottom lip to stop the victory laughter. "I am a student… I'm in High School. I'm a cheer-leader."

She can vaguely hear a "yes!" rejoice on the other end of the phone, but Justin speaks calmly. "So… Umm, wanna be friends?"

"Sure!" she agrees, grinning. "I'll call you later then!"

* * *

She waits for Justin to come tell her about his new phone-friend. For some reason, he doesn't. Of course he acts happy and suspiciously non-chalant, but she doesn't ask him anything. This will be more fun if he remains this careless.

* * *

She calls him again the next day, right when she knows he's doing Math. Nothing in the world can be better than interrupting Justin's homework. "Hi, Justin." she says sweetly.

"Hey", he flushes, the thoughts in his mind reminding him again that he's a teenager, "Miss Higglebottom."

She giggles. "You're so cute!"

He flushes again.. "And you… Your voice is so… Hot." He holds his breath, waiting for her to hang up, or yell at him.

This time, she flushes, not because she is flattered, no! Because her brother just called her hot… well, sort of. Come to think of it, Justin calling someone hot is… jackpot. She's so getting his 400 dollars Captain Jim Bob Sherwood collectible, selling it, and keeping all the money for herself! She grins, "I _am_ hot."

He clears his throat. "Uh, I… we… You…"

She grins wider. He just forgot how to speak. And she loves the fact that she's the one responsible for this. She hangs up happily. "I'll call you tomorrow then."

* * *

She doesn't get to call him the next day though. It turns out that she has already used up all her free minutes. Whatever, she sits in the couch and watches him squirm and check his wand every other minute. And this is so much better than flirting with him on the phone that it's hard to hide the grin forming on her face.

* * *

She doesn't get to call him the next day either, because of Hugh Normous. (And wow, she is not the only one with name-puns)!) "Umm, Justin, can I borrow your wand?" she asks him sweetly. "I used up all my free-minutes crank-calling yours!"

He frowns, staring at her incredulously. "So _you're_ Miss Higglebottom?"

She grins evilly, like it's a normal brother-sister thing to crank call your brother pretending to be Miss XYZ. "Hello, Justin."

* * *

**Justin- 18 years, Alex- 16 years **

Ever since she pretended to be Miss Higglebottom, and Miss Higglebottom pretended to be a cheer-leader, the idea of taking revenge on Alex by making her a cheer-leader just got stuck into his head. It's revenge and pleasure rolled into one. What could be better?

And finally, he has successfully got her into the cheer-leading squad, with the help of Franken Girl. Now that is what she deserves for black-mailing him about Miss Higglebottom for a whole year and taking away 70% of his monthly allowances. Yeah! Now, Miss Higglebottom will have to wiggle her bottom in front of him!

She glares at him, and growls. "I think you're the real monster, Justin!"

* * *

Two weeks later, she turns herself into a doll, he has to fix up her mess (of course) and get her out.

She is so happy that his Jim Bob geek junk finally came to her use! She has been eyeing that ever since he bought it! And she didn't even need to use Miss Higglebottom to blackmail him. Awesome. And the hug after the fight…. Well, she has a hint of what he's giving her tonight (she can't wait!).

So really, she has the final laugh. And she should thank Rachael for this. Sort of. She's not sure if she should teleport herself inside the TV screen again after the Night of the Halloween Sorority Party disaster…. Whatever. Justin will surely rescue her again. That's what brother-slash-boyfriends are for, duh!

So maybe she can drag Justin with her inside the TV too.

_("Fade to black. _

_Show the names. _

_Play a happy song…")_

* * *

**A/N: she used the name Miss Higglebottom, right? Sorry if I got it wrong, it's been a while since I watched the episode :S as you can see, in my head, a parallel jalex universe exists. And yes, I am a crazy "Friends" fan, I hope the reference didn't make it confusing :P Hope you liked it. Please review :)  
**


	13. Oneshot 13

**Summary: and just why shouldn't she love the Dream Helmet? **

* * *

**Justin- 9 years, Alex- 7 years. **

Little Alex whimpers in her sleep. The room is just so dark, and she is just so scared of being all alone in it. Anything can be in that darkness- the evil witches she heard about in the stories her mother told her, or the monsters that Max says are under his bed, or the aliens that Justin keeps talking about. What if they come and get her?

"Mommy", she runs to her parents' room and gets up on their bed and shakes them up. "Mommy, daddy, I can't sleep."

Her father groans in his sleep, saying something she can't hear, but her mother wakes up and pats her head. "What's wrong, honey?"

She bites on her lip and swallows her pride. It's kind of hard admitting this. "I'm…. I'm scared…. Can I sleep in Justin's room?"

Her mother sighs. "Sweetie, you're growing up. Your brother needs his space."

She sighs too. She should have just snuck in to his room instead of asking for her mother's permission. She knows he would have never thrown her out. _Never. _Not even in her worst nightmares. She yawns, rubbing her sleepy eyes. "Can I sleep here then?"

Her mother hesitates for just a moment, before she smiles. "Sure."

* * *

"This can't happen everyday", Jerry mumbles, dusting something hard and blue in his hand. "She needs to grow up Theresa. Even Max learnt to sleep alone. Alex has to learn to get used to the dark."

"And that thing is going to help?" Theresa asks incredulously, pointing a distasteful finger at the object in his hand.

Jerry shrugs. "I know you don't like the use of magic, but hey, this may be a good option."

* * *

"This is a dream helmet", Jerry explains, as Alex stares at the new object with wide, curious eyes. "You can use it to dream about anything. Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, anything you like. And you can wake up anytime you want to. Isn't that great?"

She nods enthusiastically, almost snatching the helmet from her father's hand. It's heavy, but she's still a bit chubby, so she manages. She looks for some kind of switch to turn it on, but frowns when she finds none. "Daddy, how does this thing work?"

Her father takes out some thin book from his pocket, smiling. "Well, here's the manual that will-"

"-Okay, got it, thanks", she snatches the manual away, and shoves it in Justin's hands, tugging on his sleeves. "Come on Justin, we've got work to do. Let me see if you can really read fast."

"I _can_ read fast!" Justin insists, "I will show you!"

Jerry just stands and blinks as his children rush upstairs without even a glance backwards. Trust Alex to manipulate Justin to do her work!

* * *

"Warnings", Justin reads from the manual. "Do not put the dream helmet at a temperature below 10 degrees. Do not-"

"-Blah blah blah", Alex cuts him off. "What else does this thing do?"

He raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

She rolls her eyes. "It's a magic thing Justin. It's gotta do more than just let us have the dream we want!" Her eyes twinkle with a mischievous glint, a sparkle of excitement and thrill in them that he knows means trouble.

He frowns, but begins reading the manual in his mind. He's a bit curious too, to be honest. His eyes bulge out when he finds something. He hesitates for a while, considering it's _Alex, _but finally decides that he can't keep something away for her for long and gives in. "Umm, it also says that you can also enter into someone's dreams, causing you and that person to have the same dream. You'll be in full control of the dream though, unless the person is aware of what's going on or you tell him that he's in control….", then he frowns as he realizes something, "I don't think dad would have wanted you to know this. Uh oh."

She grins evilly, her eyes fixed on his face. Now she has found the perfect way to fall asleep.

"Alex", he warns in what he thinks is a reprimanding brotherly tone, what she thinks is a panicked, scared dorky tone, "You are not doing it." he sees that his words have no effect on her, as usual, so he resorts to threat, "I'll tell dad."

She scoffs. "So what? I'll tell him you read it to me. He'll scold you then, not me."

He opens his mouth to protest but closes it with a sigh of defeat. He can only imagine what she has in store for him at night… Trust Alex to manipulate him to do what she wants!

* * *

They dream. They dream of chocolates and magic and fairies- and ponies (and screaming Justin but he calls that a nightmare).

It feels like they're together through the dreams. It feels good. It feels safe. Now she can sleep through the darkness easily. She's not alone anymore….

* * *

**Justin- 18 years, Alex- 16 years **

She's so alone these days. With Justin gone to college, Zeke gone and Harper mourning, Max dumb and her boyfriend stinking like dog half the time, she doesn't really have much to do these days. Stupid Hippie Justin spoilt all her plans for keeping Justin at home. Now she has no way of having him with her. Unless she starts having weird dreams about-

Oh. Why didn't she think about this before?

* * *

The first time he dreams of her, he thinks he's homesick, he's missing her. In that dream, they fight over nothing, like they usually do, and in the end, they hug and make up. When he wakes up, he feels such a longing in his heart, it's such a heavy feeling, that he just _has to_ call her up.

She sounds suspiciously happy when she answers the call, considering it's just the morning and she's always hated mornings. She sighs contently, "Hi Justin."

He raises an eyebrow. Why is she suddenly being nice to him? "Are you okay?" he asks uncertainly, and then an idea hits him. He doesn't know why he thinks of that of all things, maybe because it's Alex and he thinks she would do something like this, or maybe because she's a teenage girl in love, but well, either way, he does. He lowers his voice to ask the question he dreads to ask. "_Please_ tell me you didn't sleep with Mason. Mom and dad will kill you if they find out. Well, technically they won't kill you, but you will be grounded. Wait, you're already grounded, so that means…. Alex, are you listening to me?"

"Of course! Why would I not listen to your boring lecture and dorky tone early in the morning?" she retorts sarcastically.

He frowns, but well, that's more like the Alex he knows. "So…. You still didn't answer my question?"

"What question?" she asks playfully, and hangs up before he can respond. Trust Alex to keep Justin at the edge of his seat, guessing!

* * *

In the second dream, they are flying the magic carpet together. For some reason, none of them speaks. They just look at each other and smile, take in the comfort of each other's presence, and think of that time when he taught her how to fly the carpet.

He calls her up again as he wakes up.

"Hello?" Today she sounds annoyed. That's better.

"You did not sleep with him" he announces smugly, "If you did, you would have called me up and told me about it. You would have boasted getting something over me. Isn't that right, Alex?"

She can't hide her grin. He's just too easy. "Some things are personal, Justin. You don't tell _everything_ to your _brother_." Only, the way she says 'brother' isn't sisterly. At all.

His face pales and his throat chokes, but thankfully she hangs up, so he doesn't have to speak. Trust Alex to leave him speechless.

* * *

In the third dream, he's in her magic journal, walking through the roads with her teddy bear. They talk and chat and fight and bicker like they usually do. Until his alarm rings and he has to wake up. He calls her up again.

This time, she is amused. "Yes, honey? Miss me in the morning?" she mocks.

"Ha-ha-ha", he returns dryly, "Hey, can you give me Mason's number?"

She scoffs. "Why would I ever do that?"

He runs a hand through his hair nervously. "I just wanted to talk to him."

"About?" she presses.

"You guys didn't…." he trails off, "right?"

She can feel the rhythm of her heart beat change this time. He is being so persistent. "Why does it matter?"

"Because you're my little sister", he says it like it's obvious, but really, this dialog is getting old. Even he knows that.

She doesn't hang up this time. Instead, she changes the topic and starts complaining about how her mother has imposed a curfew on her and Harper ever since a robbery happened two blocks away. That is so not fair!

* * *

When she pops up in his dream for the fourth night, he knows magic is involved. They paddle through volcanoes in a boat and ski through ice.

He calls her up in the morning again.

She greets him with a laugh. "If this was a sitcom, you calling me up in the morning would have been a staple."

"Ha-ha-ha", is what he offers again, and then he turns serious. "You are using the Dream Helmet again, aren't you Alex?"

She chuckles. "Geez, took you this long to figure that out, genius? What is wrong with you, Justin?"

"What is wrong with _you_, Alex?" and he is suddenly yelling, "Why are you intruding into my dreams?"

"Intruding? Mason uses that word." She snickers. "You two would make such a cute couple."

"Alex!" he hisses, "Quit doing this!"

She only laughs. Like she would ever do anything he's tell her to do!

"Seriously!" he's yelling again.

She hangs up. Her ears are kind of hurting now. So maybe this is why Harper doesn't like her phone at full volume….

* * *

She's in his dreams the fifth night again. She had to be. Just so Justin didn't get the wrong idea that she's started listening to her. Not because she misses him or something. Pfft!

But this time, just before they wake up, he kisses her. That should teach her a lesson. Two can play a game.

He doesn't call her up today. He'd wait and see what she does, if she calls to yell at how sick he is, or ignores him…. or invades his dream again. Either way, it's a win for him. He'd take both. Well, he thinks….

* * *

She pops in to his dream for the sixth night too. And he isn't too surprised to see that he is relieved. He isn't surprised when they start making out either. He responds, but doesn't let it escalate. She groans, it's her dream, why can't they do it her way? But he shakes his head and smiles, "Not here. Not in dreams." She gives in reluctantly, she'll have her revenge.

He calls her the next morning. "Give me Mason's number."

She's a bit taken aback. After all the things last night, after everything he, the king of corny fools, could have possibly said, _this? _ "Why?" she asks incredulously.

He looks like she just asked him if B comes after A. "Because I have to tell him that you're breaking up with him! Now that we're together, I figured you'd want to break up with him. I thought I'd do you the favor of breaking his heart. Frankly, I've always wanted to do that, you know how much I hate him."

She really doesn't know what to say to this. Justin is finally claiming her as his own. Finally, because, they have been playing this game of denial for too long. And to think that a dream helmet can do that….

She clicks her tongue. "We are not together Justin". He panics, she knows it. She grins. "You said it last night. Not in dreams. Come home, make mom and dad un ground me and take off my curfew, do my extra credit assignment, take me to see "No Strings attached", pay my phone bill, give me your credit cards cause mine are all maxed out, ask me out nicely, and _then_ I'll think about it. Good day", she wishes sweetly and hangs up. Revenge is so sweet.

Trust Alex to leave Justin with his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

* * *

**A/N: The dream Helmet idea was myjumpingsock's thanks! Personally, I liked how this one-shot shaped up. Hope you liked it too :) please review!**


	14. Oneshot 14

**Summary: And that's how the hat song is written.**

* * *

**Justin- 10 years, Alex/Harper- 8 years**

She always thought he should be punished for over-studying, for over-thinking, for over-analyzing everything, for being so overly careful all the freaking time, and of course for being so dorky. She's _so_ glad that this happened.

What happened? Justin woke up in the morning and it started railing Captain Jim Bob action figures in their room, their father told them that his full powers were finally settling in, and gave him "the hat". It was so ridiculously bright and weird; even he refused to wear it at first. But then his pants caught fire and his books turned to a light saber, and he was forced to comply. And now he looks like a perfect joker (he usually looks like an imperfect joker. Hey, he's the one who insists on perfection!). Everyone at school is laughing at him. This is so awesome! This will be so much fun, till he starts crying!

"Justin's hat is kind of cool", Harper observes, standing with Alex while she drinks her juice, and staring at Justin with a dreamy look in her eyes, as he takes out his books from the locker.

Alex scrunches up her nose in disgust and makes a face, wondering if she should spit the juice out to emphasis how grossed out she feels. That's the worst hat she's ever seen, and even more so since Justin is the one wearing it. She's kind of worried that her parents may make her wear the hat when _her _full powers settle in….

And then the words come to her like it's a spell she's making up. "Hey Justin!" she calls out loudly. He looks at her with wide eyes, waiting for the retort, and she grins. "What's that? A hat? A crazy funkie junkie hat? Overslept, hair slightly, childhood like ? We've been there, we've done that, we see right through your funky hat."

She laughs; he stands speechless, that mouth open- eyes wide typical look of disbelief on his face.

Harper glares at her, scolds her, and tells her she should stop annoying her brother like this. But she rolls her eyes and ignores her for the time being. It takes her a while to convince Harper to join her, but once the school has forgotten about Justin's crazy hat disaster and he isn't the target anymore, Harper admits that the song is kind of cool.

"It's not bullying right?" Harper asks her before she joins in. "Justin thinks bullying is bad, and I don't want to upset Justin."

Alex rolls her eyes, putting on a fake smile. "Of course not. We're just making fun of people."

And that's how the hat-song is born.

* * *

**Justin- 12 years, Alex- 10 years **

It's only two more years before her powers settle in. When she's ten, she wakes up with drums playing all over the house. And she is forced to wear that hat too. At first, she screams and yells and protests, and laughs while Justin's clothes turn pink, but then she develops wings like a fairy and gets a teddy bear in her hand, and it's so embarrassing to be seen like such a girl that she thinks the hat is better.

Of course everyone at school laughs. Of course Gigi makes fun of her, asking her if she's turning bald. Of course she wants to take off her hat and teach Gigi a lesson. Of course Justin stops her from doing that.

"Go ahead. Get it over it." she mumbles in an annoyed tone while brushing past him, shoving him with an extra force. Since he's here with her, she might as well get her anger out on him.

He shifts his back-back on his shoulder so that it doesn't fall off from the motion, and follows her. "Ummm, what are you talking about?"

She slams her locker closed and glares at him. "I know you want to tease me. So just get the hat song over with!" she crosses her arms over her chest, tiniest hints of tears in the corner of her eyes and her lips quivering, but she manages to hold back her tears. She's not going to give Gigi the satisfaction of seeing her crying.

He doesn't say anything. Instead, he takes out a photo and a pen from his bag, scribbles something on the other side of the photo, hands it over to her, and gives her a sweet reassuring smile.

She watches him curiously as he walks away, and then looks down at the photo in her hand, to see that it's a photo she took of Justin two years back, one where he is wearing the hat. She flips the photo to read what he just wrote:

"_The hat song's your thing, not mine :)_

_P.S. if would be really nice if you stop teasing me with that. _

_P.P.S. My hat doesn't look like a toilet seat." _

She can't help the smile spreading across her lips as she reads this. She's so lucky to have him in her life. Even though she'll never tell him this, he's the best brother in the whole world.

* * *

**Justin- 30 years, Alex- 28 years**

"A cowboy?" she can't decide if she should just stare at him in shock or faint and pretend like she didn't see this so that they don't have to go through it. They won't go through it anyway. _Over her dead body_. This is such a disaster! She should have seen this coming. "And who are you trying to be? Mr. Laritate?"

He shifts uneasily, muttering a "gross" under his breath. "I'm not wearing a bow-low tie." He points out, shrugging. "I thought you'd like this?"

"_What _in the world make you feel like I'd like to play cowboy with you?" she asks incredulously. How long has he known her again? Her whole freaking life? What is he? A dork clone? What was he thinking when he thought she'd like _this? _

He shrugs. "Hey, you are the one who named the horse you were riding, Justin, remember?" he grins, winking at her.

Her face scrunches up. She groans. She wants to kick herself, if an action like that is even possible. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She'll just keep sending the wrong signals all her life, won't she? First that stupid alien costume that she said "looked good on him" as a retort, which he thought was a compliment and decided to wear it to bed, and now…. She can't even chose an adjective for this.

"It'll be fun", Justin insists, and then, his expression visibly deflates when he sees the disinterested look in her face. It's like a gear is turning off in her head, and he knows this means he might have to end up sleeping in the couch again. He frowns, and with a reluctant sighs, adds, "Unless you want me to go and change into my normal clothes…."

"Yes, _please_, do that!" she orders quickly. She's so desperate that she doesn't even mind saying please!

Only when he turns around does she get the perfect idea to get back at him for this. She hasn't done this in years, not since Uncle Kelbo turned her into a stupid doll for making fun of his hat (seriously, why do people just keep making her a doll?), but now the words come back to her like it's a spell she's improvising. She calls out for him. "Hey Justin?"

He turns around, looking a bit confused. Did she change her mind? That girl and her unpredictable whims! When he looks at her, he knows she didn't. She must have something else in her mind, something devilish. This is so unfair to him. She should have been particular to him when she said "surprise me" if she had such a long list of "I won't do this". That outfit cost him a lot, specially the hat. Now that she wants nothing to do with it, he can only hope he can pass it off as a present on his son's third birthday. Yeah, he's slowly turning into his father, but they both have the Alex factor in common, though in different ways. That girl can turn a king into a penny pinching miser with her crazy shopping sprees. When will she understand that by buying things she will never use just because they are on sale, she is actually wasting more than she is saving?

She grins evilly, oblivious of his thoughts, and eyes his cowboy hat. Revenge is so sweet. "What's that? A hat? A crazy funkie junkie hat…."

He stands speechless, that mouth open eyes wide typical look of disbelief on his face. Oh hell, he can sleep on the couch again. She's _so _going for a ride now.

* * *

**A/N: okay, so I forgot the hat-song lyrics. Don't kill me! haha! Hope you liked this. Please review :) **


	15. Oneshot 15

**Summary: she had to be the one who always won. **

* * *

**Justin- 8 years, Alex- 6 years, Max- 4 years**

"That's my book!" Justin scolded, tugging it back from Alex. He couldn't yank with much force though, afraid that his little sister may fall down and get hurt. "Come on, Alex!"

"It's mine!" Alex snapped, tugging it with a jerk. She doesn't read, she isn't interested in this stupid book, but since Justin wants it, she's _got _to have it. "You said what was yours was mine! Now gimme the book!"

"You don't even like books! What are you going to do with it?" he huffed, pulling it with all his strength. How could his little sister be stronger than him?

"I want it!" she said simply, stomping her feet. She didn't need to give a reason for her actions to anyone- especially to him!

"Gimme back!" Justin yelled, trying to snatch it out of her grasp.

"I want it too!" Max suddenly joined in the tug of war, trying to snatch the book away from his siblings.

"No way!" Alex huffed, tugging harder than she had before. The book was in her hands in an instant and she was running away so fast that they couldn't catch up. Before she entered her room, she stuck out her tongue at her brothers, the thumb and index finger of her left hand forming an "L".

She had to be the one who always won.

* * *

**Justin- 30 years, Alex- 28 years**

"Jesus, Justin!" Alex yelled, storming inside the living room and snatching the newspaper away from his grasp. She spent _two hours_ cleaning up the bed-room, and he's reading the paper? "I thought I told you to fix dinner. Come on! Get up and get to work!"

He sighed. She had snatched his paper away in the morning and made him make coffee for her, then again before breakfast to fix sandwiches for her, and again at breakfast so that he concentrated on what she was saying and not on what was going on with people she "didn't give a damn about", and then again when he came home from office, claiming she was too busy throwing out his books to cook. The things that came with living with Alex!

He rolled his eyes, silently moving over to the kitchen counter and grabbing the plates before she started breaking them. "Guess what I read in the newspaper?"

"Hmmm…. Pass", she said quickly, in what she thought was a good Jeff Winger impression, plopping a marshmallow inside her mouth. Justin said she can't eat dinner properly if she keeps eating "junk" before that. She had to prove him wrong, as usual.

He rolled his eyes again. He would tell her the story anyway. "A research group conducted a study among children. According to them, the younger sibling benefits from sibling rivalry and fights. It helps them develop social skills better."

She yawned dramatically, munching on two marshmallows. "Seriously Justin, you've gotta make your stories more interesting."

He frowned. "Don't you think you should at least thank me for helping you develop your social skills?" Or have you completely forgotten that we're siblings, he thought in his mind.

She scoffed. "Based on what? A stupid survey? _Oh please_! Shrinks are useless! Max had five!"

"There is nothing wrong with Max!" he barked. He opened his mouth to protest again, but was interrupted by the door-bell. "Alex, get that. I'm busy."

"You get that!" she snarled.

"I only have two hands!" he snarled back, holding his hands up to show her that his hands were already full.

She groaned, stomped her feet childishly, but finally opened the door. "Oh, hey Max, thanks for dropping by uninvited and without any notice", she said dryly, and loudly too so that Justin could hear.

"Alex! That's rude!" Justin scolded from the kitchen.

"So is dropping by invited and without any notice!" Alex shouted back, repeating the words, and with more emphasis this time.

Justin ignored her, and instead yelled a "Come on in Max, you are just in time for dinner!"

She rolled her eyes and closed the door as she saw Max rush to the kitchen, drooling. Russo men and food. Sigh. And now her apartment probably needed disinfection. Ew.

And then her eyes sparkled with a brilliant idea. "So….. Justin, if your survey is right-"

"-It's not _my _survey, it was conducted by-"

"-Then doesn't it mean that-"

"-And it _is _right-"

"-Max should have the best social skills?" she finished, grinning evilly.

Justin winced, staring at Max trying to push noodles inside his nose. He was so not helping! It was just so gross. Now he remembered why Alex didn't like having him over for dinner. Or any other occasion. "Umm, he still has better social skills then me", he mumbled quietly, swallowing his pride.

Her grin widened, as she sat down at the table. "But he is worse than me. Which proves that your survey is flawed. Mmmm, dinner smells so _sweet." _

He gritted his teeth. She grinned victoriously. She had to be the one who always won.

He huffed, serving the food to him and Alex, since Max had already taken the liberty to serve and start. "You win. _For now_. We'll see that when we have kids."

"Okay." She rolled her eyes.

"And grandkids."

"Okay, now you're overselling it."

* * *

**A/N: I actually did read about a survey like this. LOL. Hope you liked it :) **


	16. Oneshot 16

**Summary: they say first impressions are important. So maybe their first meeting defined their relationship?**

* * *

**Justin- 2 years, Alex- new-born **

He remembers his mother telling him that he'll have a "little sister", and now his mother is telling him that the thing in her lap is that, and that its name is Alex. He stares at it in wonder, watching it nibbling on its tiny thumb. Its eyes are closed, and there's very little hair on its head. It's chubby though, and its cheeks are really cute. It looks so innocent when it is sleeping. He likes it, he decides. He smiles widely at it, leaning closer. "Can I touch it, mommy?" he asks, with an edge of desperate pleading in his voice.

"Of course honey" his mother reassures, smiling at him. "Just be gentle, ok?"

He nods at his mother, all the while staring at the baby. Should he touch her head? Or her cheeks? Or her tummy? He doesn't know why, but he just goes ahead and holds her hand, twining his tiny fingers with her tinier ones. It just feels so…. _good_. He's never felt this way before. Her fingers jerk just a little bit, and her eyes open. He watches in wonder as he sees a dark shed of chocolate brown. His eyes are deep gray, but hers are more different, cuter as she stares at him tiredly. He likes it, he decides. He smiles widely at it, leaning closer.

And then the next thing he knows is that the head of the action figure that he had been holding in his other hand is somehow in her grasp, her tiny fingers tangled over it. He blinks in shock, his eyes slowly growing wide in panic as he feels her hold tighten. This is his favorite action figure. She isn't going to destroy it, is it?

He wants to yank; he knows he can snatch it away from her if he yanks, but what if she starts crying? What if his mother goes mad?

"Jerry! Look what Alex just did!" his mother coos in excitement, calling out to his father, who had been video taping this whole encounter. They wanted their son and their daughter to be able to see this moment when they grew up. "This is so amazing!"

His lips quiver in fear and sorrow as he tries to pull the action figure away, very gently. But her hold is so tight, that the head remains in her hand while the beheaded body lands in his hand. He gasps in shock as he stares at his demolished action figure. How could a tiny thing like her do _this? _Will she keep doing things like this to him all his life? "She kill Cap en Tim Bob!" he cries, tears streaming down his face.

And then the baby pouts in its sleep, her tiny fingers relinquishing its hold on the head of his action figure and going back inside her mouth so that she can nibble her thumb, and he notices that all this while she never let go of his hand. He likes it, he decides. His crying is instantly forgotten as he learns up a new word. "Al-ex."

* * *

**Justin- 35 years, Alex- 33 years **

"Are you sure that's all of the home videos?" Justin asks skeptically, going over the titles in the covers, written in their mother's stylish hand-writing. He has a feeling that she got rid of the ones where she embarrassed herself.

She groans. "I don't know. And I don't care. These are super embarrassing. I want them _all _destroyed."

"I want them preserved." He snaps, slapping her hand away as she tries to snatch one disk. "These are memories."

She yawns loudly at his words, not even bothering to cover her mouth.

"Alex!" he scolds. She's slowly turning into Max. "If you don't like home videos, why did you make some for your own kid, huh?"

"I didn't. _You _did." She reasons, slapping his hand away as he tries to snatch her cell phone. She _is _going to text while they are talking- hwo many times will they have to have this argument?

"I suggested it. _You_ are the one who taped all of them." He reminds her.

She stutters a bit. "T-That's because I wasn't going to… give you my camera, duh!" she smacks his head lightly, sticking out her tongue at him.

"That's _my_ camera. You stole it from me when I was twenty." He points out flatly, and breaks into a victorious grin. He plops one of the disks inside his laptop, settling down at one side of the bed. "I think Max has some of the disks." He says thoughtfully.

"Good." She mumbles non-chalantly, settling down beside him, using him as her pillow.

He runs his hands through her hair, and sighs softly.

She groans. "Ugh, Justin. I'm not cuddling. You know I hate cuddling."

He frowns, but ignores her, and waits for the disk to load. She stole his new laptop, and now he's stuck with the crappy one. Finally the image flashes on the screen, and she sits up as she recognizes it's that video of their first encounter. "Oh my God! I can't believe you're watching it again!" she whines, kicking the bed with her feet a few times.

"What are we watching again?" Their daughter suddenly interrupts, popping into the room with the flick of her wand, and jumping down on the bed.

"Get out. Or I'll upload that vid of you wearing the Mickey Mouse hat to the internet." Alex threatens, sending a death glare at her daughter. On second thoughts, home videos can be useful, as long as she isn't the one in them!

"Okay, okay!" she holds her hands up in defense, rolls her eyes at her mother, and pops out again.

Justin sighs in defeat. Alex sighs contently. And they both watch that moment when they first met. His fingers automatically tangle in her hands, and this time, she squeezes back.

"You began torturing me right from the beginning", he mumbles into her hair. "It's been this way forever, huh?"

She chuckles. "Nah-uh. I didn't mess with you on purpose back then. And we didn't start screaming and yelling."

He nodded. "Yeah, but it did define our relationship, you know, how it was going to be over the years…."

She grins evilly, looking up at him with a teasing smile. "Really Justin? You knew back then that you'd fall in love with me?"

He shrugs, grinning back at her as he places an arm around her. "Maybe?"

She groans again. "Ugh. Seriously. Stop saying those cliché things. And stop trying to cuddle."

"I'm not cuddling!"

"Then what do you call this?"

"I'm just giving support to your spinal cord so that it doesn't-"

"-Ugh just shut up and kiss me!"

* * *

**A/N: just an idea that got stuck into my head. I plan on continuing this, but right now I'm all out of ideas :P Thank you very much for sticking around and please review :) **


	17. Oneshot 17

**Summary: It's a good thing she hated vegetables.**

* * *

**Justin- 8 years, Alex- 6 years, Max- 4 years**

"Come on Maxie, finish up your broccoli", Theresa pleaded, trying desperately to shove the spoon inside Max's mouth. Max made a face, scrunched his nose, sighed in the same way that he had always seen his father sigh when he gave in to their mother, and finally opened his mouth in a big O. Theresa didn't waste a single second to just throw the broccoli in his mouth, and smiled when Max swallowed. "Now aren't you the cutest little guy in the world?"

Alex snorted, shaking her head in disappointment at Max. Her training wasn't paying off, and the anti-vegetable movement wasn't starting in the house. Justin had been of no help from the very beginning- he even insisted that vegetable is good for health and they should eat it every day to be healthy and strong like Captain Jim Bob Sherwood.

Well, if he wanted vegetables _so bad_, she was kind of doing him a favor by discretely moving her broccoli to his plate while their mother was not watching and he was busy closing his eyes and chewing, right?

So really, did the dork need to blink and stare at his plate and then turn to eye her suspiciously every time he saw more broccoli left? Gosh it's not such a big deal! It's just _broccoli. _It's not like she's feeding him….. carrots!

When Theresa was _finally _done with Max, she turned to look at her other two children's plates. She was stunned to see Alex's plate shining empty, alongside Justin's. She blinked for a few seconds, eying her daughter suspiciously, and looking around the dining table to see if she had thrown it somewhere. Seeing no broccoli in sight, she smiled in satisfaction, petting the heads of the kids, and walked over to the sink to wash the dishes, Justin trailing behind her to help.

Alex grinned smugly in victory, dangling her feet and effectively kicking Max in the process, her eyes gleaming with the success of her plan. This was so easy- worked every time.

Well, every time until that moron caught a cold, fell sick, and couldn't join her at the dining table. Not only did she get scolded for not eating her broccoli that day, and yelling a "can't you cook something _other _than broccoli mom?", her mother figured out her plan, and grounded her for two weeks.

Two weeks of grounding, with Justin sick in bed in such a way that she couldn't mess with him. Well, it's a good thing she hated vegetables then. She utilized that time getting rid of every single vegetable in the house before it was even taken to the kitchen to be cooked, thank you very much!

How? Don't ask.

* * *

**Justin- 25 years, Alex- 23 years**

She was expecting something grand for their five-year anniversary- some grand romantic dinner with champagne and a French movie maybe, considering how much of a romantic fool Justin was? But nope! When she got home from work, it was same old house, same old kitchen- well, tidied up after her disaster that morning- and same old home cooked meal. Her eyebrows twitched with irritation- he didn't forget, did he?

"Happy five-year anniversary, baby", Justin whispered softly in her ears, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

She drew in a deep breath that sounded suspiciously similar to a hiss. So he remembered all right, and he still didn't do anything special. Really? _Really? _They had celebrated the last four years, what happened this time? Did the hospital kick his out because he was too dorky?

"Happy anniversary", she mumbled back awkwardly. She didn't want to fight today, didn't want to ruin the day. And knowing how Justin was always over-thinking about everything- from the color of his socks to the apartment they were buying- Jesus, she wished she could live without telling him _anything_!

"Are you ok? You seem upset?" he asked quickly, catching on to her thoughts, and turning her around in his arms to look into her eyes. His fingers gently touched her cheeks, and she closed her eyes at the touch. "Did I do something wrong?"

She shook her head, wondering how exactly he could read her mind. Maybe she was that obvious? "I'm fine… so what are we doing today?" she tried to chirp up, forcing a smile on her face.

He smiled back, said a quick "I'll be right back", and rushed into their room. She sat down on the couch happily, expecting a really good present- maybe that ipad she had been wanting since forever but could never save up enough to buy?

And instead, she got a hand-made anniversary card. Of course. It's Justin, what was she thinking? He'd pick out papers in the fanciest colors and cut them in designs with such details that he could make a professional interior designer like her to feel ashamed. And to fall in love with the card and the words in it immediately and forget that she was mad. Grrr.

Thank God she had emailed him the second e-card that she had come across then!

"We're spending the day right here, talking, just you and I, nothing else." He announced, breaking her out of her thoughts. He then licked his lips nervously, searching her eyes. "You're okay with that, right? Or do you wanna do something else?"

"Wow", she breathed, still staring at the card in her hand and only half-listening to him. "Thank you Justin", she whispered, giving him a quick peck on the lips. They were so busy these days, they rarely got time to spend together in their own apartment, just the two of them. "It's perfectly alright with me."

He only smiled, nodded his head, and gestured for her to join him at the dining table, pulling her chair out for her. And gah would it kill him to just tell her that her card was nice, or something? She got the "your card has been viewed notification", it's not like he didn't notice it yet! And you blame her for being mad at him, huh?

She sat down quietly, grumbling within her mind, and contemplating throwing the knives and the forks at him.

He only smiled more, and took the lids off the bowls to reveal what he had made for her.

"_Broccoli?_" the words left her mouth with equal horror and disbelief. No, no, no, no, no, he was not spoiling the evening like this, no, not after she quietly swallowed so much!

He shrugged. "You tricked me to eat yours when you were a kid. You never really had your share. It's only fair you have it now." He reasoned, digging a spoon in the bowl and serving hers in the plates- her good plates, damn, she couldn't even break them on his head, ugh!

"Are you kidding you?" she asked incredulously. "You're getting even with me on our anniversary. _Really, Justin_?"

He grinned. "I'm sneaky, remember?"

She rolled her eyes. Yeah, right. And he was the one who had messed up a status update and almost given them up to everyone. Sure, what says sneaky more than that?

"Open wide", he instructed, winking at her with it.

She was so mad at him, she couldn't even find it suggestive. She frowned, picking up a piece of broccoli with her hand- ignoring his scandalized screams of how unhygienic it was- and gazing at it distastefully, willing it to change into something edible, like an ice-cream, or that yogurt.

But nope, no such luck. So the only logical thing left to do was to throw it at Justin's face, which she did. Seeing him jump up from his seat in shock as it hit the bridge of his nose? Yeah, best anniversary present ever. She was totally doing it.

Her frown quickly turned into an evil grin, his panicked face taking on a look of a different kind of panic altogether. "Alex, no!" he tried to reprimand.

But of course that only encouraged her more. She was totally gonna throw broccoli at his dork face. It's a good thing she hated vegetables then.

* * *

**A/N: Yep, I AM BACK WITH ONE-SHOTS! It's been SOOOO long, how are you guys? No, it isn't a rhetorical question- really wanna know how you guys are doing! Hope you remember me, and hope you liked this. Please review! Thanks for reading :) **


	18. Oneshot 18

**Summary: thank God for his Pikachu!**

* * *

**Justin- 10 years, Alex- 8 years, Max- 6 years**

It was a normal quiet Friday evening, Alex napping on the table while pretending to do her ten missing assignments- her mother's yelling about how she was going to end up robbing a bank by the time she was fifteen if she kept on slacking like this from this age finally getting to her and inspiring her enough to open a book, Max absorbed in the video game he was playing and losing for the fifth consecutive time if he knew how to count, and Justin, well, being Justin and studying up for next month's lesson, God bless dorks.

And in one second the smoke alarm in the lair was blaring and Jerry was jerking awake from where he was sitting and supposedly supervising the kids' studies, Theresa was yelling Spanish curses, awakened from her sleep.

"Uncle Kelbo!" the three kids jumped up at once, knowing very well who this was, and rushing down the stairs happily, everything else forgotten, Alex shoving past her brothers to get there first.

"Hello kids!" Kelbo, dressed in tight pink pants and a flowery green shirt, greeted, shaking his head and his giant elephant ears along with that.

"What happened to you?" Max asked in awe, staring at him like he was the sweetest spectacle he had ever seen.

"Oh this?" Kelbo asked, shaking the ears again, prompting a nod from Max, "I was in circus in 2090. You can't believe how much fun it was!"

"I wanna go!" Alex chirped quickly, latching onto Kelbo's arms before Justin could hold her back. Heh, last time she did this, Justin had already grabbed her hand, and so Kelbo had teleported both of them together. Justin had killed all the fun of the trip, of course, but she did manage to make her own fun by tormenting Justin. The best sisters can do the most with the least.

"Hold on, young lady, you're not going anywhere." Jerry said sternly, finally entering the room, with a grumbling Theresa trailing behind. She'd rather go back to her sleep, she trusted her kids (Justin) to take care of Kelbo (her lamps and refrigerator and room and... well everything).

"Why not?" Alex whined, batting her eyelashes in a way that she had mastered by staring at the magic mirror for hours when she was only five. She knew it'd always work on their father.

"Why don't I show you kids your presents first huh?" Kelbo suggested, quickly diverting the subject before Theresa blew up. He know those flaring nostrils well!

"Okay!" Alex cheered up quickly, moving to the side, elbowing Justin, and pushing him back further. "Me first, me first!"

"Okay kiddo! Here you go!" Kelbo handed them their gifts one by one, Alex being the first recipient like she wanted.

Within seconds Alex and Max's gifts were torn out of their wrappers, revealing a tiny bicycle bubble blower-cum- pencil sharpener for Max, since he loved things that could do two things, like a platypus, and a magic hat for Alex that changed colors to match her outfit, the season, and the time of the day.

And by the time they were done jumping, rejoicing, and hugging their uncle to say thanks, Justin had only managed to open his wrapper neatly and reveal the stuffed toy inside.

"A pikachu?" he asked, blinking at it. Now, whole he was totally into superheroes and games and all the geeky stuff in the world, he had honestly never really cared much for pokemons. Sure, they were super cute, and he loved them and wished he had one, but here's the thing- if Alex found out, the whole school would be calling him a girl.

Kelbo shrugged. "I thought you could hug it when you go to sleep every night, and maybe you'll finally be able to sleep without a night lamp on."

Justin's face flushed a deep shade of red in embarrassment on hearing those words and the snicker from Alex that followed it, but being the good kid he was, he smiled politely at his uncle and thanked him with a hug.

Alex chirped in a thank you from the side too, and he had known his doom had begun.

"Do you sleep with your pikachu?" "Do you play dolls with it?" "Shouldn't you be feeding it milk?" "Why is it so yellow? Does it have yellow fever?" "Will it catch the dork disease from you?" "Do you want me to do your hair?"

The jokes had only begun. And no matter how many times he told her it was a _gift, _and not something he had control over, the jokes kept doing their rounds.

Finally, when he thought he had had enough, he tucked the Pikachu away in his closet, praying that the "out of sight, out of mind" theory was real and the teasing would finally stop.

It did. After three and a half years, when he accidentally fell asleep with his light saber inside his pajama somehow and Alex walked in on him like that.

Yeah, it was another story how it ended up there, and how he explained that. For what it matters, that was the end of pikachu era.

* * *

**Justin- 18 years, Alex- 16 years**

Just because she always knew that he would move out and away for college doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt when he did!

It had just been a day. She was _already _lonely, miserable, and cranky altogether- the fact that she wouldn't admit this to anyone only making her MORE miserable- and every time he called she would yell at him about how much she hated him.

"I miss you too", he said with a sad smile in his voice, trying his best to sound just cheerful enough for her to cheer up. "Hey, I left something for you in my room."

"It's not your room anymore!" she snapped instantly, her voice dangerously close to a growl. "I'm totally taking over it and moving in there when mom stops crying!"

He frowned in confusion. "I thought you liked your room better?"

"Yeah, so I'll convert it into my art studio, duh!" And she hung up with a growl and a "I can't stand you" and another "I hate you."

And then she was off to his room to see what he had left for her. Sure enough, there was a neatly wrapped box with a "Alex" name-tag in his thick cursive handwriting. His stupid handwriting brought stupid tears to her eyes, and it make her anger. She took out her anger on the wrapper, tearing it away fast. And then she blinked.

Inside it was that old Pikachu stuffed toy. It had been so long, she had almost forgotten about it. She didn't think he still had it! Why would she be surprised- it's Justin! He's probably gonna preserve every single thing he owns in a fossil or something when he dies!

She picked up the Pikachu with one hand, bringing it close to her face, and taking a sniff. It smelt vaguely like his clothes, like him, being stuffed in his closet for so long. The smell brought another tear to her eyes, and a smile to her facelips.

She wrapped her arms around it, and gave it a tight hug. This was _nothing_ close to having Justin with her, having him in her arms, but being a girl who never had a teddy bear because she decided it was too girly, she could really use a stuffed toy to hold on to while she cried for him!

Thank God for his Pikachu!

* * *

**A/N: Glad to see you guys still remember me! Hope you like this one too, please review! :)**


	19. Oneshot 19

**Summary: Grrr. She wanted to kick Captain Jim Bob Sherwood in the groin so freaking bad.**

* * *

**Justin- 7 years, Alex- 5 years**

Little Justin sat on his desk, in his room, reading the latest issue of Captain Jim Bob Sherwood with great attention. He admired Captain Jim Bob so much. To him, he was his religion. He worshipped him and wanted to be like him, to do whatever he could to help others.

Little Alex didn't get it. She _just _didn't get it. She was only five, and while she admired her big brother for wanting to be so brave and strong and always went to him with all her questions and all her problems and all her thoughts, she just didn't understand his deal.

What a dork!

* * *

**Justin- 17 years, Alex- 15 years, Max- 13 years **

_Takes place right after the Maximan episode…_

"…. And so Dean and I are ok again." Alex finished explaining, her lips curling up with a smile of relief before it curved back down into a scowl as her mind jumped to another thought. "Max is such an idiot. He was gonna wreck everything, ugh."

Justin cleared his throat, looking at his sister carefully, and taking two steps back as precaution before he said what was on his mind. "Ummm, I like what he did. I mean, his intentions were right. I liked how brave and compassionate he was."

Alex blinked, staring at her brother like he grew two more heads than the five big ones that she claimed he already had. "Brave and compassionate? Are you freaking kidding me? He could have wound up dead today!"

Justin kept quiet, knowing better than to argue with Alex when she was mad. They never saw eye to eye on anything anyway, and lately they had been fighting way too much. There wasn't one week that had passed without them having a _huge_ fight ever since they had started dating, and he hated it.

"Wait a minute!" Alex suddenly eyed Justin from head to toes a few times, narrowing her eyes and glaring at him. "Does this mean you would have done the same thing?"

"Well", he cleared his throat, looking from wall to wall to avoid her gaze which was making him even more uncomfortable than Harper's stare, and trying to find words to say. "Maybe? I think we need to help someone in pain and trouble."

"Oh give me a break Justin; you're giving me a headache." Alex snarled, the words coming out in an almost growl. "You fainted while watching stupid documentaries on World Wars. Where is all this shit coming from?"

He scratched his head and looked away, not saying anything.

And her eyes widened dramatically on realization. Alarm sign of explosion, he knew it very well. "Are you _fucking kidding me_?-"

"-Alex, watch what you're-"

"-You're trying to be Captain Jim Bob Sherwood now? _Really Justin?"_ She barked, standing up in front of him with her arms crossed in what she thought was an intimidating pose. "You think you can save the world? Do you know how many lives these superheroes get? It's a stupid comic Justin! Of course the good guy always wins there and the hero never dies! Get into the freaking real world! You're gonna end up chopped into _pieces! _And what can you possibly do to help anyone? Can you fly? Can you run fast? Do you have super-strength? Can you breathe fire? Shoot laser with your eyes?"

"Umm, Alex, there's no superhero with the description that you're giving."

"_UGH_!" she growled, tugging on her head, frustrated that he wasn't getting her point. Stupid, stupid Justin. Why did people call him smart?

He cringed, backing away from her a few inches. "Look, it's not like I'd go running into danger wearing my cape." He paused then, bit his lip. Great, he might have just ignited another fight. "I meant _a _cap."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Save it, I know you still have it."

He shrugged. "Well…."

"_Well_", she mimicked his tone, mocking him. A part of her mind wondered if she was totally over-thinking and over-reacting. Another part shut it up. She's totally allowed to over-think and over-react about her boyfriend's safety! What was going to happen to _her _if something happened to him? Where's she going to go and who's she gonna live for? "Do whatever the heck you want. Who am I to stop you? You're the one who'd end up with broken limbs, not me."

"Ah, _that _is how you use limbs." He smiled, trying his best to divert the topic before they plunged into a fight. The glare she shot him told him to shut up if he valued his life though (Not that she thought he did). "Look, Alex, it's not like I come across situations like this."

"You're thinking about taking monster hunting for your independent studies", she stated, the words coming out in little bites. "Don't think I don't know."

He cringed again, wondering how in the world she knew that. So she's learnt to get inside his room and not leave traces. Great. "Look, Alex," he began again, and before he got cut off once more, he looked her in the eyes, took her hand in his and squeezed them reassuringly. "You know I'll always be cautious. I over-think, remember?"

She rolled her eyes, not replying to him. Yeah, she could totally see Justin running away from scary monsters. "I just want you to know that when you end up dead, I'm totally gonna marry someone rich, hot and handsome, and sleep with him all day and all night while you twist in your grave!" She finished, storming out of the room without giving him a chance to catch his breath for dramatic effect.

Grrr. She wanted to kick Captain Jim Bob Sherwood in the groin so freaking bad.

* * *

**A/N: I had another one planned first, but well :P Hope you like it. :) Please review, thanks for reading! **


	20. Oneshot 20

**A/N: The idea is by Save Vs Magic, though I sort of tweaked it. Thanks I guess? :P**

**Summary: she always knows how to shut him up.**

* * *

**Alex 6 years, Justin 8 years**

He's been waiting for this for 7 days. That's 604800 seconds of his life. (Yes, he counted.) He has been practicing for this, in between his tiny shifts at the sub-station and wizard lessons and school and homework and visiting Zeke to make separate lists for action figures they have, they want, and ones that they should start a petition to raise awareness that the company needs to manufacture. He's spent so much time and energy, studying every move, observing every mistake he made, redoing, repeating, analyzing, re-analyzing. There's no way he can do wrong this time. He _has to _win.

And what did _she_ do? On Monday morning she decided school wasn't worth waking up for, and slept through the afternoon (he will never understand how a 6 year old can sleep so much and how their parents _let _her sleep so much), in the evening she pulled pranks on Max, made him cry, made up, watched cartoons together, and the other usual Alex stuff. On Tuesday, she went to school, but the rest was pretty much on repeat. Wednesday and Thursday were the same. Friday evening was spent with Harper and the… _things _that she made (Clothes is his guess, but they look like hay covered with chocolate, so he's not really sure). Saturday was sleep-and-annoy-others-day again. Sunday was the family game night, and the ensuing fights and yelling and slamming of doors and their mother's yells of "this is so unhealthy" and neighbors yelling at them in language that he will never bring anywhere near his tongue.

And now here was Monday. And here they are on the couch, ready for the re-match.

"You may beat me once, Alex", He begins, folding the sleeves of his shirt like a true warrior before he gets ready to wrestle her in the wrestling video game, "But that was only because I was distracted by how you were making little comments. Today, you can't distract me, I won't lose my focus."

She rolls her eyes, more interested in staring at her nails than looking at the boring screen, and lets out a yawn. "Are you done lecturing? Can we play now?"

He nods, and picks up his controller, puts on his screen name, something that she had never heard before he used it and something that makes her flinch even after hearing so many times.

He whines. "What? He's an _awesome _robot."

She decides it's wise to stop him at "Robot". The rest would just be "Blah blah blah" anyway. She picks up her controller, and types in her screen name, "Ruler of the dorks" (How clever of her, thank you very much), ignoring the lame "So you're a mathematical instrument now?" pun that he pulls, and chooses her avatar.

"Alex, you can't be a boy." He protests, looking at her with disapproval.

She pouts. "Why not?"

"Because", he pauses, to give her that look of incredulity and disbelief, "you're a girl!"

"I know that!" she snarls, hitting him with the controller. "That doesn't mean I can't be a boy here. You follow the stupid rules. Show me the rule that says I can't be a boy!"

The way his lips purse and nostrils flare tells her that she's won this battle. (The whole war is hers anyway). She grins. She _always _knows how to shut him up.

After a moment of silence, they start playing. Alex yells for ice-cream, and for Max to stay away from her room, and for her mom to _keep_ Max out of her room. Justin tries his best to ignore her, pretends the game is math, and calculates every move he makes.

And she wins. Again.

"There!" He throws his hands up in the air in frustration, his voice rising two pitches over normal. "How did you do that?" He watches her carefully, sees her shrug non-chalatantly and give him a smug grin, and he loses it. "You're cheating!" he declares.

"No I'm not!" she shrieks, getting up from the couch and throwing the controller on the floor, breaking it in the process. "Why can't you admit that I'm better than you at something?"

"Because you're better than me at everything!" he yells out before he can stop himself. "I'm always thinking, how can I not be the family wizard? You haven't even started your lessons yet! And then you come along and do something that just…." He realizes what he just admitted, watches the look on her face change from anger to hurt to sympathy and….

"Mc-Reary Time-reary."

…"No I'm not!" she shrieks, getting up from the couch and throwing the controller on the floor. "Why can't you admit that I'm better than you at something?"

He sighs in relief that the new spell he learnt works, and sighs again at his new choice of lame reply. "We'll have a rematch. Someday."

"Sure!" she throws behind the shoulders, adding a tongue-sticking-out Alex pose to seal the deal, while she runs up the stairs. "I'd love to beat you again."

He sinks lower on the couch and lets out another sign. He has to beat her someday.

* * *

**Alex- 28 years, Justin- 30 years**

"I can't believe you actually found this." She blinks in surprise staring at his hands.

He grins proudly. "Unlike you Alex, I know how to preserve things."

She rolls her eyes, and resumes typing away at her laptop, "Does that thing even work anymore? It's old, you know, compatibility and all that thing you and Zeke keep yelling about."

He grins what he thinks is mischievously, "Don't worry; I'll make sure it will."

She looks at him curiously for just a moment, but doesn't ask anything. He will start babbling about his 'achievements' without being asked anyway.

"Zeke and I fixed it." He assures. "It was just a few changes. Nothing major. Really easy."

She scoffs. "Yeah, if you morons can fix it, I bet it was real easy."

His lips purse into a thin line, his nostrils flare, and he starts lecturing about what exactly they fixed, a long and boring lecture that she doesn't understand, doesn't care to understand, and effectively zones out.

After a while she realizes that her ears feel peaceful, and that he's stopped talking. She lets out a sigh of relief.

"So?" he asks, as if waiting for her reply. She bites her lips, fearing what is to come. _Please nothing dorky, please nothing dorky. _

"You promised me the re-match", he points out, glaring at her for good measure.

She scoffs again. "I also promised I'd clean my closet yesterday. Sure."

Then it's more dork lecture that she tunes out, but her ears kind of start to itch, and she can't take it anymore, and a "fine" just slips out of her lips subconsciously.

And now here they are, playing this game after so long. It feels…. _nice, _familiar, like she just got back a piece of her childhood.

It gets better when she beats him again.

"How the hell did you…" he doesn't even bother to finish. She doesn't let him anyway. She's yelling exaggeratedly just to rub the victory in his face, just the way he hates it.

He sighs sadly. "You've beat me in every game. Why can't I ever win?"

She puts on a look of fake sympathy. "Because I'm better than you?"

"Yeah, at being annoying." He rolls his eyes, gently slipping the controller that he worked so hard to fix out of her hands before she breaks it again. "So…." He clears his throat. "You win."

"I know." She grins, "awesome score huh?"

He ignores her remark, and clears his throat again. "So that means I get to be on top, right?"

"Duh!" she rolls her eyes.

He perks up. "Dinner's coming right up." And he leaves the room in hurry.

She chuckles to herself. Yeah, she always knew how to shut him up. Not that she has to necessarily keep the promise, because, you know, her closet still kind of looks like a bird's nest.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys, it's been such a long time! I hope I didn't lose my jalex touch and you guys liked it. Please review and share your thoughts! Thanks for reading, hope you all are doing well :) **


	21. Oneshot 21

**Disclaimer: remember it's_ Alex_ making fun of "micro-serfs", not_ me_ :P**

**Summary: she'll never tell him how she loves it when he reads to her while she's sick in bed.**

* * *

**Alex- 10 years, Justin- 12 years**

He knew she'd fall sick, he had known it from the moment she decided to ignore his "Alex you will fall sick" yells and went out to play in the snow, dressed in winter-wear that he deemed insufficient, because of the lack of Captain Jim Bob Sherwood approved cold-proof snow boots.

He wanted to tell her "I told you so", but being sick made her more grumpy than usual, and he had a suspicious feeling that the chances of her throwing up on him would increase tenfold if he did. So instead, he sat beside her quietly while their parents were busy in Max's room trying to convince him that he wasn't sick and hence needed to go to school the next day.

"Go away", Alex roared in a gruff sick voice, for the fifth time in the two minutes that he had been there.

He shook his head. "Not until you feel better. Do you need something?"

"For the fifth time, no." she snarled, which ended up in a fit of coughs.

He quickly reached out and grabbed her glass of water. She snatched it from his hand without a thank you and took a long gulp, while he watched. His eyes darted here and there, finally growing wide when he noticed something. "Is that your Spanish book?"

"My what?" she made a face, that strangely made her red and swollen nose look cute.

"What is it doing in the ceiling?" he asked in amusement. She never failed to come up with new and improved hiding spots in plain sight.

She rolled her eyes, shoving the glass back in his hands and settling down further inside the blankets, with the cover drawn over her head, just the way she liked.

"Alex, don't", he pulled the covers down. "Your nose is blocked. You can't breathe that way."

She glared at him. "You sleep the same way. Plus the night light. And the dolls."

"Umm, action figures." He corrected before he could stop himself, then sighed at her sneaky smile. He would fall for this every time. Why? He shook his head, changing the topic of conversation. "Why don't you learn Spanish? When you do, we can have little conversations in Spanish."

She scoffed. "Why would we talk in Spanish? What's wrong with English? Did they throw you out of English class because you're too dorky?"

He drew in a deep breath to restrain himself from answering back and letting her shift the conversation away from her failing Spanish. "Come on, it'd be fun."

"It'd be dorky." She announced before he could even blink. The d-word was always at the tip of her tongue since she was three and learnt it.

He sighed, deciding to let it slide. "I guess my fun is dorky?"

"I agree." She grinned, loving how she had the upper hand in the conversation. She could hear Max's voice in the background, and wished he could just shut up already. Her head was starting to hurt.

"Let me read something to you." He said suddenly.

For the first three seconds, she thought she heard him wrong, that it was some headache-induced delusion. But then she saw him fumbling her desk to find a book (Yeah, as if she _had _a book in her room! Sure!) and her eyes shot wide open. "Justin, no. I already have a headache, there's no need."

He ignored her, holding her door open, "I'll just grab my book and come back, ok? Hold on."

If she closed her eyes and breathed slowly, he'd be convinced that she fell asleep, right?

* * *

**Alex- 25 years, Justin- 27 years**

He knew she'd fall sick, he had known it from the moment she decided to ignore his "Alex you will fall sick" yells and went out to "play" in the snow (throw snowballs at him while he gasped and shrieked with a scandalized look in his face), dressed in winter-wear that he deemed insufficient, because of the lack of Captain Jim Bob Sherwood approved cold-proof snow boots.

He wanted to tell her "I told you so", but being sick made her more grumpy than usual, and he had a suspicious feeling that the chances of her accidentally kicking him out of bed at night would increase tenfold if he did. So instead, he sat beside her quietly, and ran his hand through her hair.

She blew into the tissue, threw it on the floor ignoring his "there's a trash-can right beside you" and focused back on her cell-phone.

He couldn't help but glance at the screen curiously. It was from Harper. "_That could be fun, yeah, LOL_."

And whenever the word "fun" was associated with Alex, he knew his life was his danger. He cleared his throat, wondering how to ask her what was in her mind (in his future). "Did you know they have LOL in the dictionary?"

"Did you know I don't have a dictionary?" she shot back quickly, elbowing him for looking at her cell phone.

"Yes you do! I bought you one!" he exclaimed, shaking his head at the poor dictionary's possible fates. He took in a deep breath, deciding to stir the conversation back to LOL. "It shouldn't be in the dictionary, you know."

"Oh God", she mumbled quietly, wondering if she should throw him out of the house now or wait till he opened his mouth again.

"I mean, it's not a word. It's an abbreviation." He pointed out, like there was a huge difference between the two.

"You are a dork", was her response. "I told Harper to visit this New Years". She spat out, deciding to put an end to his round-about cross-questioning slash dork speech.

He smiled, relieved. That would be fun. "Did you invite Zeke?"

"No." She said like it was obvious, then made a face, "But he'll tag along anyway."

He sighed, giving up, and grabbing his book from the book-shelf.

"Oh God no," she whined, crawling under the blankets, "please don't read, please, please don't make me hit you with the book, I don't want to move, I'm sick."

"It'd be fun, come on." He tried to encourage her, knowing full well it was in vain.

She snorted. "How many zombies does this one have?"

"None, actually." He smiled enthusiastically. "This one is about-"

"-Don't know, don't care." She cut him off. "Get going, put me to sleep already."

He cleared his throat, positioning the book in his lap so it was at the perfect distance from his eyes. "It's titled Micro-serfs."

"Micro-geeks." She snickered. That would be a fun book, if the title was so funny.

He sighed. This was never easy, and yet he could never give up.

She smiled, settling down closer to him. She would never tell him how she loved it when he read to her while she was sick in bed. Because, you know, if she did, he'd start reading more to her. And reading and Alex should never match.

* * *

**A/N: yes, I finally updated. Hope you guys liked it! Assuming my dork will be busy for the rest of the week, I can possibly update again this week, so please review up guys! :) **

**BTW, finally posted a trailer for this on my YouTube, so you can check it out :) **


	22. Oneshot 22

**Summary: Losing a tooth has never been more fun.**

* * *

**Justin- 7 years, Alex- 5 years**

It's been a bad time for him ever since she started walking and talking. It's like one of her annoying Baby Alive toys has come to life. She has been giving him such a hard time. She always gets the last piece of cake, and the last cookie in the jar, and to sit near the window in cabs, and that new shoe she wants, and to pick the movie they will watch three out of five times, and that new light in her room. He's been getting sick and tired of her getting what she wants all the time.

And now he has something that she doesn't. Now _this_ has got to be the best Christmas present _ever!_

"Hey Alex", he knocks at her door; giving her a big-toothed smile, flashing the cavity between his two front teeth. "Did your teeth fall out yet?"

She tries to fake a non-chalant look on her face, even though her nostrils flare up instantly at that stupid annoying smile. "No." she tries to say calmly, but ends up blurting it out in almost a whimper.

He fakes a smile. "Don't worry; you'll grow up, kid. Someday."

She closes her eyes and purses her lips. No, she is not going to give him the satisfaction of making her angry. Why should she? This isn't such a big deal! So what if he lost his tooth before she did? He only looks like a moron right now. She bets kids at school will tease him. Not that they already didn't… And she will lose her teeth someday pretty soon too. Then she'll look pretty. And she won't be a cry baby like him! _Mommy, my tooth fell out, am I going to die? _He is such a drama queen. Didn't his stupid books already tell him he would lose his teeth?

Taking in another deep breath, she untangles herself from her chain of thoughts. "I know", she only says, and closes the door in his face swiftly. Ugh, he's so annoying.

* * *

This routine continues. He asks her the same question all the time- at breakfast, lunch, dinner. When they're "helping" their dad set up the Christmas tree or put up the lights. When they're helping their mom bake cookies and cakes and look after Max.

She tries and fails to play it cool. He's getting to her. For the first time he has the upper hand, and she hates hates hates it. She has _got to _come up with something soon. Something to shut him up. Hopefully for life.

* * *

Christmas is good. The snow is so beautiful, and her house is so cozy, she doesn't even mind the cold. She gets the better presents- take that Justin! (And Max! and Gigi!) She shares some with Harper (shh!). New Year is good too, but she hates that their mother makes them go to bed before the ball drops. She could have totally stayed up one night!

School reopens, Gigi looks funnier, she still doesn't lose a teeth, Justin is still annoying. But luckily, she has come up with a great idea. Wink. Wink.

She watches Justin talking animatedly to Zeke, and her eye-roll inevitably follows. Years can change, dorks never will.

"Hey dork. Hey other dork." She greets them a bit too enthusiastically.

Both of them widen their eyes. Last time, she sprayed cheese on them. Now what?

"Did you notice how my dear _bradar_ lost a tooth?" she asks, stumbling in the middle of the long sentence twice.

"Yeah! Totally!" Zeke perks up, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree in what can only be Justin-awe. "It's so cool!"

Her eyes gleam with an evil spark. "It is! It was so funny to knock his tooth out!"

The colors drain from Zeke's face. He takes two steps back tentatively. "You did what?" The '_what' _squeaks like a two year old girl crying. It almost makes her burst into laughter.

Justin stares at her in shock. "No you didn't! My tooth fell out!"

"Really Justin?" she tilts her head to a side. "Zeke, is it so hard to believe that I will knock out Justin's teeth?"

Zeke studies her from head to toe like she's an alien in disguise, which he kind of suspects she can be. Then he shudders in pure Alex-fear. "No."

Alex grins. Nobody expect Zeke bothered to pay attention to him (Good for them!). So now Justin has no one to brag to! Now _that's _the best late Christmas present ever!

* * *

**Justin- 50 years, Alex- 48 years**

He will never understand her need to munch on a chocolate right when they return from visiting the dentist. Especially when he specifically tells her _not _to eat more chocolate and completely rot her teeth.

"I can't believe _my _teeth had to be pulled out first!" Justin mutters in disbelief, as he sits down on the couch.

This is at least the thirtieth time he has said this since they left the dentist's, Alex notes. She wonders if he is turning into one of those forgetful old men. Maybe she can steal his wallet then and he won't remember that?

His sigh breaks her out of her thoughts. "Man, I'm getting old, huh?"

"Yep", she agrees cheekily. She's not going to fight him on that. "Then again, you were always old and boring. _Don't do this. Don't do that", _she mimics, making faces. "All that over-thinking and right and wrong lecture and principles and crap. Ugh. You were born old."

"Shut up". He says bluntly. "Maybe I was a little uptight as a kid…"

"Maybe?" she gasps. "A little?" she gasps again. "Yeah, you _are _losing your memory. Put me down on your will before you lose it completely."

"You're not helping, Alex." He sighs. "I feel so old right now. When did I turn fifty? In my head, I still see myself as a little boy. Just yesterday I was monster hunting and running away from you and fighting and climbing stairs in one breath. What happened?"

She snorts. "You grew old?"

"Alex!" he interjects. This is _so _not the right time for her jokes.

"I'm sorry!" she holds her hands up in the air in surrender. "I don't know what to say to make you feel better. Tell me what to say or do?"

He shakes his head. "Unless you can make me young again, I don't think you can help, Alex."

She bits her lip and thinks for a moment. Then her lips slowly curl up in a wicked grin. "Well, I can make you _feel _young."

Some of the disappoint lifts from his face. He glances at the clock tentatively. "Now? We should get to bed soon, it's ten already…"

"Oh my gosh!" she whines.

"I wake up at five!" he points out. "You're gonna sleep in till ten. Don't judge!"

She glares at him. "Do you, or do you not want to have tooth-fall out sex?"

A chuckle automatically leaves his lips. "Tooth fall out sex?"

Her glare intensifies. "Yes. I can call it whatever I want. Do you want it or not?"

He thinks for a moment. "Well, how about we just talk for now? Can you just stay here with me?"

She grins, settling in closer to him and snuggling. This is the best and worst part of committed relationships, depending on her mood and the level of annoyance in Justin's little speeches. She runs her hands through his graying hair and smiles wickedly. "If somebody asks what happened to your teeth, just tell them I knocked them out because you won't give me any."

* * *

**Edited A/N: Merry Christmas guys! I promised an update, and here it is! Hope you liked it :) please review! :) have an awesome Christmas everyone! (And for those who don't celebrate Christmas, happy holidays!) **


	23. Oneshot 23

**Summary: The chair-lift one. **

* * *

**Alex- 8 years, Justin- 10 years**

It's been annoying Alex all morning how her mother forcefully woke her up at 6 a.m. on a holiday. She was excited to see grandma again, yeah, but 6 a.m.? It's just the beginning of summer vacation; couldn't she wait just a while? Does the sun even rise at 6 a.m.? She wouldn't have known, if her mother had oh so graciously spared her sleep.

The other thing that's bothering her is the chipmunk seated beside her in the car, on her mother's lap, that keeps making the sound of what sounds like a cat, the one that her parents had fondly named Max. She glares at him and warns him to hush up, but her mother reprimands with an "Alex" every time, and she decides not to push it beyond that and get into trouble.

Of course the most annoying thing is Justin. She had insisted that she sat in the front with their dad, but they insisted that there was enough space for three (plus Max in mom's lap), and she didn't have juice handy to spill on the seat.

And now here he is, fooling himself with the illusion that she is actually listening to him, as he continues being the dork he is, and enthusiastically looks out of the window, and points out every other landmark they pass in New York. What a dork, being a tourist in his own city!

By the time her eyes get tired with all the eye-rolling that she has been doing, her parents have started telling the story of how they met, Justin's face has taken on that look of helpless panic, and her eight year old brain knows it's time for a nap. She tries to place her head on her mother's shoulder, discovers Max smells like something right out of that Men In Black thingy that Justin watches, and decides to throw him in the cold water of the pool the first chance she gets.

And now she's forced to place her head on Justin's shoulder. She stomps his foot with hers to warn him right before he opens his big mouth, and his eyes only glaze with the pain as he silently wills it to go away.

Before long, the soft fabric of his shirt has become the best pillow in the world, and she has fallen asleep.

* * *

She kind of wishes she didn't have to wake up. Really. She's not a hugger, and yet, here she is, each of them are being hugged by their grandma so tightly that Max thinks he may burp out yesterday's meal. That's when she decides that Justin is a better option than Max to spend her summer with. At least he isn't gross. Not that she'll ever tell him that.

* * *

At least she likes the room. She's not too excited to share a room with her grandma, but at least she could shove Justin in the room where Max will be and save herself from that doom. How bad can it possibly be? Maybe grandma will snore a bit. Maybe she'll silence it with magic. Big deal.

The first thing to do is jump around the house. Alex and Max take turns to stomp on every part of the apartment and annoy every neighbor in the building. Justin helps their parents in reprimanding them, but of course it only gets him what he deserves- when they're climbing down the stairs, she calls out to a neighbor, points at Justin, and tells him Justin has been stomping all day long.

Before he can complain, she's taken the chair-lift and cheerfully gone away.

Oh yeah, the chair-lift. That's another favorite thing of hers. Her grandma had it installed three months back because of her knee problems. And she's got to say, it's probably the coolest thing grandma ever did. Imagine, a chair that carries you up and down? She can just sit and not have to do any work. A-m-a-zing on you!

She has been going up and down on it for an hour now, and Justin's been telling her to stop. Doesn't he have a life? Anything better to do than bug her?

"Come on, Alex", he insists. "It's going to break if you keep doing this."

"So?" she shrugs. "I'll tell everyone that you broke it."

He scoffs. "Nobody will believe that I break things!"

She grins evilly. "Really? How about that neighbor we met?"

She knows from the way his face flushes that she's got him right where she wants him. "Keep your mouth shut, Justin, and you'll be fine."

Of course the chair-lift does break in a few days. But she blames it on Max. Just because she needs him grounded in his room and not running around stinking the way only he can. Justin disapproves, of course, and chickens out and confesses that it was Alex and he knew, and of course he gets them both grounded. It's all his fault.

When the grounding ends, she's back, sitting at the now-broken chair-lift, painting sweet pictures in her mind about how she can magic the chair into super-fast speed and freak Justin out. Maybe next summer.

* * *

**Alex- 35 years, Justin- 37 years**

They knew their mother would protest. "I don't need a chair-lift, I'm fine." She insists, as she rubs her knee and curses something under her breath in Spanish, something about how stupid arthritis runs in her stupid family.

Of course, she never listened to her mother as a kid, so there is no way she is going to listen now. Specially since Justin is paying the bill.

It was easy getting him to agree to pay the full price instead of half. "You're a bachelor. You have enough money."

"So do you", he had pointed out.

"Fine." She had sighed sadly. "I guess I can manage a bit from this month's rent."

"Oh, no, no, no", he immediately protested, "Not again, Alex. Maybe it's time I get a new room-mate."

She huffed. "Yeah, good luck, Sheldon Cooper."

His nostril flared. "Alex, that show is insulti-"

"-Yeah, nobody cares", she rolled her eyes. "Here's the address of the store. You can't order online. I kind of… eBay is down. Later."

Of course the next week was spent arguing over why she maxed out _all_ his credit cards, and how he should choose better passwords than "submarineagain", but finally on Saturday, he had placed the order.

And now the lift is installed, and their mother is being stubborn.

She shrugs. "Fine, I guess I'll just use it for fun then, you know, like I used to."

Everyone tenses up at once. And it doesn't take long before Justin snatches away her wand. She sulks, pouts, yells, but he's adamant that they don't need Edward sitting on Jacob's lap on a chair-lift, and it's definitely not going on YouTube.

Ugh, what a kill-joy. She closes her eyes, and a smile lights up her face, as she starts painting sweet pictures in her mind about how she can magic the chair into super-fast speed and freak Justin out. Maybe next time.

* * *

**A/N: I think that's it for this fic. In fact, that's it for my jalex, now that the show has ended. This fandom will always be special to me, because you guys are awesome (And also cause I met my boyfriend here :D). Thanks to everyone for sticking around with me. I hope you liked this :)**


	24. Oneshot 24

**Summary: imitation is the best form of…. Um, hatred?**

* * *

**Alex- age 8, Justin- age 9 **

She was not exactly sure what happened there.

Let's take it from the top.

On 14th January, she messed up a spell to turn Justin's hair orange and instead destroyed her own favorite pair of shoes. She threw a hissy fit and blamed Justin for it and vowed revenge and came up with the idea of giving him a moustache and beard and then dying them orange.

On 22nd January, she messed up the spell to do that and instead turned another pair of her shoes orange. Another round of hissy fits and blaming Justin and swearing revenge followed.

After which, her mother threatened her father that she will dye all their shoes orange if he didn't stop being such a miser and just buy her a god damn pair of new shoes and get this freaking whole thing over it!

On 3rd February, after finding his Nets autographed baseball bat suspiciously missing and finally getting the hint, he finally took the kids out to buy new shoes.

"Can't we just get one for Alex? The other kids have perfectly new shoes!"

"I want that one!" Max complained, pointing at a shoe on the highest shelf and on the higher side of that thing called price range. "And a unicorn that breathes out cotton candy."

"If they get new shoes, why shouldn't I? I'm the good son!" Justin complained.

And before her father could answer that with a "because it's my money and I want to go home now to watch AFV reruns", her mother shut him up with just a glare.

And so, they all bought new shoes.

And here comes the part that doesn't make sense to her. Instead of buying the wedges that she begged her mother for till she finally agreed in exchange of her doing her homework on time for six whole months, she bought a pair of sneakers that was exactly like Justin's.

She was still not exactly sure what just happened there.

Let's take it from the top again.

* * *

**Alex- age 16, Justin age 17 **

She was not exactly sure what happened there.

Let's take it from the top.

On 3rd May, Justin made a comment on her Facebook profile picture making fun of the new blue streaks on her hair.

On 4th May, she blocked him, and cursed herself for ever adding him as a friend in the first place just for the sake of making fun of anything and everything he posted. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

On 5th May, she "accidentally" dropped his phone in Max's fish tank. Well, she hoped that was fish, anyway.

She was instantly and unfairly grounded. And it was immediately decided that he would get a new phone the very next day.

Why should only Justin get a new phone?

She threw hers at the wall, and oops. "I was playing catch with Max and instead of fetching the ball, he got me my phone, and I didn't really notice till I threw it and it broke."

And even though nobody believed the lie, nobody could risk letting Alex Russo roam about the streets freely without a smartphone on her that monitored her location all the time. They had all learnt their lessons after the Coney Island incident.

And so it was decided that she would get a new phone too, and her father had a Broadway moment, breaking into a conversation with the Universe and a ridiculous song that she could make an educated guess was about money.

On 6th May, they got their new phones. He got a Mandroid, with over two lakhs of apps and a ten megapixel camera, and blah blah blah, she didn't really care about the specs that he just wouldn't shut up about. She got a Kindows phone, because she found it to be ridiculously cool and stylish. Max was distracted by... They didn't dare to ask, and just bought him a balloon shaped like a giraffe.

And now she had this stupid realization that his phone was kind of sort of a little bit maybe cooler than hers. And it was bugging the hell out of her.

What were the chances of breaking another phone and not getting into serious trouble?

She was sure it was significantly less than her chances of getting her hands on Justin's phone and draining his battery.

And so it began. Snatching his precious phone out of his hands and playing games in it. She was not sure why he let her, specially after everything they had been through, but if she had to guess, she would say that by then he had waved the white flag and bowed down to worship her.

While she worshipped his phone. It seriously was amazing.

It took her a while to figure out that her phone had the pirated exactly same freaking games under a different name.

And ha, they are on even ground again! So there. All is well. Alex Russo wins as usual.

And to show off her superiority, it was time to do the spell.

And another pair of orange shoes later,

She was not exactly sure what happened.

Let's take it from the top again.

(P.S. He still didn't tell her that _calcei_ meant shoes and not orange and that's how she got the spell wrong. Shh!)

* * *

**A/N: it's been so long! I've started writing again, and I realized I should write something for the fandom that built me, and then I got this idea. Do you like it? How are you guys? I miss you! **

**Also, if anyone is interested, there's a link to my first novel on my profile. It's FREE, I just want people to read it. Thank you for inspiring me to write, you guys! Love you guys! :)**


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